Running News Daily

Man drifts ashore while trying to run from Florida to Bermuda inside 'bubble'

An ultramarathon runner who is trying to trek on foot from Florida to Bermuda in a strange floating device drifted ashore Saturday along the coast of the Sunshine State, a report said.

Reza Baluchi — and his so-called bubble, which allows him to navigate on the top of the water — ventured ashore in Flagler County, Fox 35 reported.

Baluchi is attempting the daring sea voyage to raise money for charity and to encourage people to follow their dreams.

“I will show people anything you want to do, do it,” he told the news outlet. “Don’t listen to anyone. Chase your dreams.”

Baluchi said his goal is to raise money for homeless people, the Coast Guard and police and fire departments.

The endurance runner has tried similar aquatic travels in the past.


In 2014, he was rescued by the Coast Guard while trying to reach Bermuda in a homemade floating “Hydro Pod.” He had been suffering from fatigue at the time.

“I’ll never give up my dream,” he told Fox 35. “They stop me four or five times but I never give up.”

Scott Jurek Halts Appalachian Trail FKT Attempt-Injury forces ultra legend Scott Jurek off the trail

After just one week on the trail, Scott Jurek was forced to terminate his Appalachian Trail Fastest Known Time attempt.

About four days into his run, he developed a quad issue similar to the one that plagued him in 2015. Unlike his injury six years ago, he was unable to push through or walk it off.

After months of silence on social media, the trail runner from Boulder, Colorado, unveiled his summer plans for a record-setting run on the Appalachian Trail this week. As per AT tradition, he adopted a trail name — “Webwalker” — which was given to him by thru-hikers during his 2015 speed attempt.

As of late Tuesday, Jurek, 47, was already seven days and several hundred miles into a southbound trek on the trail, not far from the Maine-New Hampshire border. His goal was to complete the 2,193-mile trail from Mount Katahdin, Maine to Springer Mountain, Georgia, in 40 days or fewer.

That would have not only lowered his only personal record on the AT by six days, but it would also have surpassed Utah ultrarunner Karl Meltzer’s current supported Fastest Known Time of 45 days, 22 hours and 38 minutes set in 2016. Jurek set the northbound supported FKT (46 hours, 6 hours, 7 minutes) six years ago, but Belgian ultrarunner Karel Sabbe lowered it by five days (41 days, 7 hours, 39 minutes) with an amazing effort in 2018.

“I haven’t forgotten the suffering, but sometimes you have to go back to the hard places and do the hard things,” Jurek said via social media this week. “I still have so much to learn, and I still have more to give.”

The Four Races That Still Need to Happen in 2021

The Tokyo Olympics may be over, but the track & field season most definitely is not. We’ve still got five Diamond Leagues to go, including the final in Zurich on September 8-9. And while Tokyo produced a number of amazing races, there were a few that we didn’t get to see. Here are the four races that still need to happen in 2021. Diamond League meet directors, pay attention (and have your checkbook handy…these races won’t be cheap to organize).

Women’s 100 meters: Elaine Thompson-Herah vs. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce vs. Sha’Carri Richardson

Of the six fastest women in history, three of them have run their personal bests this year: Thompson-Herah (10.61 in Tokyo), Fraser-Pryce (10.63 in Kingston), and Richardson (10.72 in Miramar). But we didn’t get to see the three of them in the same race at the Olympics because of Richardson’s positive test for marijuana at the US Olympic Trials.

There may be a bit of a rivalry brewing as well. Remember, after Fraser-Pryce ran 10.63 back in June, Richardson essentially took credit for pushing Fraser-Pryce to a pb (even though Richardson was not even in the race).

And when the Jamaicans were asked about Richardson following the Olympic final, they did not want to talk about her (though to be fair…they had just won Olympic gold and silver). But any mention of even the word marijuana quickly resulted in realizing they didn’t want to talk about Sha’Carri at all.

Chances that it happens: It’s already happening! The Pre Classic has announced its women’s 100m field and all three are entered.

Men’s 400: Karsten Warholm vs. Rai Benjamin vs. Steven Gardiner

Karsten Warholm’s mesmerizing 45.94 world record in the 400 hurdles generated a number of questions. One of the natural ones: how fast could he run without the hurdles? Warholm’s personal best in the flat 400 is 44.87, but that dates back to 2017, when his hurdles pb was 48.22. He’s over two seconds faster now in the hurdles, so it’s not unreasonable to think he’s in 43-second shape right now. Benjamin’s pb is 44.31 from 2019.

So let’s throw Warholm and Benjamin in against the Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner, who just ran 43.85 to win the flat 400 in Tokyo, and see how they really stack up.

Chances that it happens: 25%. Warholm has already committed to run the flat 400 in Lausanne on August 26. That’s a great start, but getting Benjamin and Gardiner as well could prove tricky.

Women’s 400: The “Dream Team” vs. Shaunae Miller-Uibo

It was a running joke for most of the 2021 season: America’s best 400-meter runners don’t even run the 400. I mean, just look at the “Dream Team” the US trotted out for its dominant victory in the 4×400 relay: Sydney McLaughlin, Allyson Felix, Dalilah Muhammad, Athing Mu. Only one of those women ran the open 400 in Tokyo.

As incredible as Felix was at the Olympics, taking bronze in the 400 in 49.46, she only had the third-fastest split on that relay (49.38), with Muhammad going 48.94 and Mu a ridiculous 48.32. What could be better than seeing all four Dream Teamers race each other head to head?

Well, how about throwing the two-time Olympic 400 champ into the mix in Shaunae Miller-Uibo? Assuming that field doesn’t collapse from the weight of its collective gold medals (all five of the women have won individual Olympic gold; their combined total is 15 career Olympic golds including relays), the race would be more stacked than the Olympic final we just witnessed.

Chances that it happens: 10%. This one seems like a pipe dream. With the Americans as the major draw, the Pre Classic would be the natural venue for this, but there are two problems. First, there is no women’s 400 at Pre this year (though it’s not too late to add one!). And second, the five athletes above are represented by four different shoe brands. It’s not as if Nike could just magically compel them all to run Pre.

Men’s 5,000: Jakob Ingebrigtsen vs. Joshua Cheptegei vs. Selemon Barega

We already saw Ingebrigtsen vs. Cheptegei in Florence in June, and it was no contest, with Ingebrigtsen pulling away to a world-leading 12:48 as Cheptegei faded late. But Cheptegei revealed in Tokyo that he has been battling a heel injury this year, and while he’s not completely over it, it’s definitely more manageable now (as evidenced by his gold and silver in Tokyo) than it was two months ago in Florence.

Then there’s Barega, who used a sick close (2:24 last 1k, 53 last lap) to win 10k gold but did not run the 5k in Tokyo. Let’s settle the title of best distance runner in the world and pit the Olympic 1500, 5k, and 10k champs together in a 5k on the circuit.

Chances that it happens: 30%. I could see Cheptegei and Barega racing each other in a 5,000 at the Diamond League final (or even the 2-mile at Pre). Getting Ingebrigtsen to join them could be more difficult, however. He’s running the Bowerman Mile at Pre and may opt for the 1500 at the DL final.

Molly Seidel just became the new queen of Strava

In case you missed it, on Sunday, U.S. runner Molly Seidel won the bronze medal in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. She ran the race of her life, hanging with the Kenyan leaders, Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei, until around 37.5 km, and fended off her competition over the last stretch to secure the bronze in a time of 2:27.51. The bronze medal won’t be the only achievement she will be coming home with, as she has just been crowned ‘Strava legend’ for having the most kudos for a women’s activity ever.

n case you are unfamiliar with kudos on Strava, they are virtual thumbs up, and comparable to “likes” on Facebook or retweets on Twitter. Currently her “full send” activity sits at 32,500 kudos and is still rising. Seidel sits on the throne beside cyclist and multiple Tour de France champion Chris Froome, who received 40,000-plus kudos for a ride in Italy.

Getting to Tokyo was an achievement of its own for Seidel, as she missed the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2016 to get eating disorder treatment. Seidel qualified for the Olympics Games when she placed second at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2020 behind fellow American Aliphine Tuliamuk. 

Canadian marathoner’s Malindi Elmore and Natasha Wodak who both respectively finished within the top 15 in Tokyo were apparently apart of Seidel’s morning walking club around the athlete’s village. Seidel illustrated the importance of these two tremendous women on her Instagram and Strava.

In case you are unfamiliar with kudos on Strava, they are virtual thumbs up, and comparable to “likes” on Facebook or retweets on Twitter. Currently her “full send” activity sits at 32,500 kudos and is still rising. Seidel sits on the throne beside cyclist and multiple Tour de France champion Chris Froome, who received 40,000-plus kudos for a ride in Italy.

Getting to Tokyo was an achievement of its own for Seidel, as she missed the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2016 to get eating disorder treatment. Seidel qualified for the Olympics Games when she placed second at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2020 behind fellow American Aliphine Tuliamuk. 

Canadian marathoner’s Malindi Elmore and Natasha Wodak who both respectively finished within the top 15 in Tokyo were apparently apart of Seidel’s morning walking club around the athlete’s village. Seidel illustrated the importance of these two tremendous women on her Instagram and Strava accounts. 

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon officials encouraging runners to get COVID-19 vaccine

In October, the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is returning in-person for the first time in two-and-a-half years.

Organizers are taking a step in the fight against the pandemic that caused the delay – launching a public service announcement campaign, encouraging runners to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as taking social distancing precautions.

“This is not a political issue, this is a public health issue and we’re just encouraging runners to get it,” said Kari Watkins, Executive Director at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. “We’re not requiring it, we’re just encouraging.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved, so have the talks between Watkins and OU’s Chief COVID-19 Officer Dr. Dale Bratzler.

“If we were having it today, I’d be a lot more concerned,” Bratzler told News 4. “A lot of the epidemiologic models show we will see substantial peak, particularly with the opening of schools but we could start to fall off fairly quickly after that.”

Bratzler says if runners are not yet vaccinated, he hopes they consider it – because running fast doesn’t guarantee COVID-19 won’t catch up to you.

“The very first person I ever took care of with COVID-19 was a distance runner,” said Bratzler. “The very first person who presented with shortness of breath, severe cough and long-haul symptoms and took him literally months to get back to pre-COVID aerobic capacity.”

Watkins says as of right now, registration looks to be at about 50% of their normal turnout.

They’re working on plans for safety – including spreading out runners at the start line and starting the race in waves.

“We’ll start making those calls 30 days out, maybe around Labor Day, saying here’s what we expect from runners,” she said.

As they work on precautions on their end, officials hope runners will take their own as well.

“For us, the marathon is an important celebration of life and coming together,” said Watkins. “When you look at the opportunities of do you require a shot or do you not require a shot, the best thing we could do is encourage vaccinations and give people a reason to go get vaccinated.”

Bratzler says as of right now, he’d encourage runners to wear a mask at the start line and take it off as they spread out.

He also says they will likely highly promote, if not mandate, masks at the indoor registration event ahead of the race.

The Belfast Marathon will be limited to 4,800 runners this year and just 200 Athletics Ireland runners will be allowed to run

A select number of Irish runners will get to compete at a 2021 National Marathon Championships in October, only it will mean travelling to the North as the event will be staged as part of Belfast City Marathon already set for Sunday, October 3rd.

Athletics Ireland announced on Thursday that only 100 male and 100 female entries would be made available, and interest in being sought “from athletes who have acquired suitable times over the last three years”. The closing date is Thursday week, August 19th.

Unlike the 2021 Dublin Marathon, cancelled for the second year running due to Covid-19, organizers of the Belfast event have got the go ahead. The total entry number is capped at 4,800.

Runners can also be included in the Irish National Marathon if they secure a regular race entry, which will cost them £63. Closing date for that is Friday, August 27th.

Last year’s cancellation of the Dublin Marathon meant there was no National Marathon for 2020, the event being staged as part of the Dublin Marathon for the last number of years.

Other National Road events did proceed this year, Tuam Athletic club organizing the National 20km walk championships in June, one week after the numbers were allowed post Covid restrictions, and 150 senior and junior athletes competing, including Tokyo bound Olympians Brendan Boyce and David Kenny.

The Belfast Marathon route takes in the four areas of Belfast; North, South, East and West, starting at Stormont Estate at 9am and finishing in Ormeau Park.

Given the date, reigning Irish men’s marathon champion Stephen Scullion from 2019 won’t be running as he is set to run the Boston Marathon, postponed from its normal date in April to October 11th. Reigning women’s champion Aoife Cooke from Cork may be in a position to defend her title, however.

In early July, for the second year running, organizers of the Dublin Marathon were forced to cancel the event outright given the still “many unknowns” around outdoor mass participation events for the rest of the year.

While always unlikely to be the full 25,000 sell-out entry of runners originally signed up in advance of the 2020 edition, postponed in May of last year due to Covid-19, there had been some hope and expectation a more limited entry will get the go ahead.

Kenenisa Bekele is set to run the Berlin Marathon

On September 26, all eyes will be on the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON. After a bitter period of deprivation, a large field of runners will be allowed to celebrate on the streets of the German capital. Due to the current pandemic situation, this year there is a reduction in participants and a detailed hygiene concept, which makes it possible for an event of this magnitude to be realized at all.

Not only are the recreational athletes appreciative of the endless efforts by the organiser SCC EVENTS, which are making it possible to finally compete together again at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON. A look at the list of favourites shows quite clearly how much the world’s elite is also waiting for top notch races. None other than running legend Kenenisa Bekele will aim for victory on September 26.

At the 2019 BMW BERLIN-MARATHON, he clearly demonstrated with his time of 2:01:41 hours that he is always a force to be reckoned with. Whether he can shine again this year with one of the fastest marathon times ever remains to be seen. Anything is possible for the Ethiopian jack-of-all-trades. The #berlinlegend Bekele appears to do particularly well in the Berlin air. This is underlined not only by his victories at the BMW BERLIN-MARATHON in 2016 and 2019, but also by his captivating performances at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in the capital city on the Spree River.

Tokyo Olympics 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs won't run again until 2022

Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs has said he will not compete again until next year.

In response to a question on social media about when he would next race, the 26-year-old responded with "2022".

Jacobs followed up his shock 100m victory in Tokyo with another gold as part of Italy's 4x100m relay team.

His manager Marcello Magnani said injury was not a factor in the decision to take a break, but the time off is a preventative measure.

"It is simply that Marcell has given so much this year, all he had, so to insist [on competing] would only mean risking an injury," Magnani added.

European indoor 60m champion Jacobs, who only switched away from long jump in 2018, produced one of the biggest surprises in Tokyo when he won 100m gold in in 9.80 seconds.

It was only in May that he broke the 10-second barrier for the first time.

He was next scheduled to run on August 21 at the Eugene Diamond League meet in the United States.

After that, Jacobs was to appear on September 3 in Brussels and then anticipated to compete on  September 9 in Zurich for the season-ending Diamond League Finals.

B.A.A. Announces Participants In John Hancock Professional Athlete Team For Boston Marathon

The Boston Athletic Association announced on Wednesday that more than 140 athletes will participate as part of the John Hancock Professional Athlete Team in the 125th Boston Marathon on Oct. 11.

Included in that field are eight of the top 12 finishers in the Olympic trials marathon, including Abdi Abdirahman, Scott Fauble, Matt McDonald, and Jonas Hampton. Elsewhere in the men’s open field, Kenya’s Leonard Barsoton and Ethiopia’s Jemal Yimer will both make their long awaited marathon debuts in Boston. Dejene Debela and Asefa Mengstu will be making their Boston debuts.

For the women, five of the top seven finishers from the 2019 Boston Marathon will return: Edna Kiplagat (Kenya), Jordan Hasay (USA), Des Linden (USA), Caroline Rotich (Kenya), and Mary Ngugi (Kenya). Two-time Olympian and Providence resident Molly Huddle will also be running.

The women’s wheelchair race will include Team USA wheelchair Paralympians Susannah Scaroni and Jenna Fesemyer, along with course record holder Manuela Schär and five-time champion Tatyana McFadden. For the men’s wheelchair division, Aaron Pike will compete in the field that includes four champions – Daniel Romanchuk, Marcel Hug, Ernst van Dyk, and Josh Cassidy – with a combined 16 Boston Marathon titles.

As part of the inaugural Para Athletics Divisions at the Boston Marathon, many athletes will compete for prize money and awards within the vision impaired and lower-limb impaired divisions. Among those competing are 2016 Paralympians Chaz Davis (T12), Liz Willis (T64), and marathon silver medalist and current world record holder Misato Michishita (T12) of Japan. Davis, a Massachusetts native, holds the T12 American record of 2:31:48 for the marathon, while Willis is a converted sprinter-turned-distance runner for Team USA. Also competing is Marko Cheseto Lemtukei, the world best holder for the T62 marathon having run 2:37:23 in 2019. The Boston Marathon is the first major marathon to offer prize money and awards for athletes with vision, lower-limb, and upper-limb impairments.

“In October, many of the world’s best athletes will look to etch their names in the history books by winning the 125th Boston Marathon,” said Tom Grilk, B.A.A. President and Chief Executive Officer. “We very much look forward to October’s competition, bringing together winners from more than one hundred global marathons. The B.A.A. is eager to continue the tradition of athletic excellence as we return to the roads leading to Boston.”

“John Hancock is proud to support this year’s professional field for the monumental, 125th running of the Boston Marathon,” said Kate Ardini, Chief Marketing Officer at John Hancock. “In our 36th year as principal sponsor, John Hancock is committed to supporting the world’s top athletes as they aim for greatness in Boston. We look forward to cheering on every athlete as they make their way to the finish.”

Five simple exercises to help improve your running

Just as strength athletes have a training routine tailored to them becoming stronger, and endurance athletes have a routine with a stamina focus, there are multiple exercises one can utilise in order to promote speed development. For example, you should focus on exercises that strengthen the muscles used when sprinting, as well as incorporating drills that train rapid leg movement. Practising running is not the only way to improve your performance. So what can you do? Here are five exercises that help to increase your optimal speed.

1. Mountain climber

An excellent move, as it trains the legs to move explosively, at a high cadence, while also simultaneously engaging the core muscles. Start in a push-up position with one leg straight and the other bent, with your knee under your torso. Maintaining a steady upper body, focus on explosively alternating legs for 20 seconds, with 40 seconds recovery. Repeat five or six times. 

2. Vertical jump squat

Squats are probably the most effective strength training exercise for runners, engaging a great deal of the muscles used in running. This move trains similar muscle groups to a squat, but the power output is maximised. Squat down, hips back, maintaining your knees in a position behind your toes. Once you reach your lowest point, immediately jump with as much power as possible, focusing on engaging your glutes and core muscles to straighten your body as you rise. Do eight to 10 reps, rest for 60 seconds. Repeat four times.

3. Single leg bound

A very effective plyometric (the term for explosive jump training) exercise, single leg bounds are basically consecutive jumps using only one leg at a time. This exercise not only forces the leg to generate a great deal of power, as the opposing leg is passive, but allows one to train force production in each leg independently.

4. Single leg balance

The foot and ankle muscles are directly involved in running at all distances so it should not be a surprise that strengthening these often neglected muscles can help in your quest to produce more power in your legs, thereby increasing your speed. Stand on one leg for 60 seconds without allowing your passive leg to touch the ground (eyes closed if you find it easier). Start on flat ground, advancing to the same exercise on an unstable surface such as a BOSU Ball. Repeat three times on each leg.

5. Single leg Romanian dead lift

This exercise is highly effective at developing speed, as it dynamically strengthens the posterior chain (the muscles on the back of the body). It is extremely common for runners to suffer from weak gluteus muscles, but this movement works these muscles, as well as the hamstrings, in a functional, explosive and highly transferable manner.

Stand tall on one leg with core engaged. Maintaining neutral spinal alignment, hinge at the hips as you lower your torso to parallel with the floor, only slightly bending at the knee. Now explosively extend the hips forward as you straighten your body to the start position, maximising contraction in your glutes and core muscles as you rise. Complete eight reps each leg. Repeat four times.

Kenyan Brigid Kosgei and Ethiopian Shura Kitata to defend London marathon titles

Kenyan world record holder Brigid Kosgei and Ethiopian Shura Kitata will defend their titles at the London Marathon in October, organisers said on Thursday.

Kosgei won silver in the women's marathon event at the Tokyo Games last weekend. The 27-year-old is aiming for her third consecutive London Marathon victory.

"Last year's win was very special, particularly given what the whole world was going through ... I hope to arrive again in very good shape and win for the third time," Kosgei was cited as saying in a statement from the organisers.

Kosgei set the women's marathon world record of 2:14.04 in Chicago in 2019.

Kitata, who pulled out of the Olympic Games marathon after suffering in the hot and humid conditions in Sapporo, said he was healthy and ready to return.

"I have set my mind on how I can run fast and better than last year and I'm looking forward to seeing if I can repeat the victory and make history in the race," the statement quoted 25-year-old Kitata as saying.

The London Marathon will be held on Oct. 3.

Vienna Marathon organizers do not expect any drastic rule changes that would limit outdoor events in the coming weeks

As things stand in Austria the Vienna City Marathon will go ahead on September 12. It is one month to go tomorrow and organizers do not expect any drastic rule changes that would limit outdoor events in the coming weeks.

Since July 1st the Austrian government has allowed all events to go ahead, no matter how many people are involved. The Vienna City Marathon could be one of the first major international marathons to take place since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Organizers, who are working closely with the city to provide the required hygiene concept, have today released a number of elite runners for the men’s event. Among those who will feature in Austria’s number one road running event are Uganda’s Solomon Mutai and Betesfa Getahun of Ethiopia, who has a personal best of 2:05:28.

It was in Vienna where Kenya’s Olympic Champion Eliud Kipchoge famously broke the two hour marathon barrier in October 2019 in a race co-organized by the same team that is in charge for the Vienna City Marathon. Almost exactly two years after this phenomenal performance by Eliud Kipchoge Vienna plans to stage a marathon again.

Adding races at shorter distances a total of 24,900 athletes have so far registered for the Vienna City Marathon, which will be spread over two days with some of the shorter events taking place on the Saturday. Online entry for this World Athletics Marathon Label Road Race is still possible until next Sunday.

“With their incredible performances and elegantly smooth running styles elite runners belong to the Vienna City Marathon. We are really happy that even in these extraordinary circumstances this year we will be able to present world-class sport on the streets of Vienna,” said Race Director Wolfgang Konrad.

Betesfa Getahun heads the current start list with a personal best of 2:05:28. The 22 year-old Ethiopian ran this time when finishing fourth in his marathon debut in Amsterdam in 2019. Since Vienna will only be his second marathon he will be eager to improve his PB. Among his rivals will be Kenyans Bethwell Rutto and Edwin Kosgei who clocked personal bests of 2:07:41 and 2:07:51 respectively in this year’s Siena Marathon. Solomon Mutai, who took a bronze medal in the 2015 World Championships’ marathon, will have the advantage of knowing the course when he returns to the Austrian capital. The Ugandan placed third in the Vienna City Marathon with a personal best of 2:08:25 in 2019.

A strong Japanese team will feature: Kento Kikutani improved his personal best to 2:07:26 this February in Otsu where he finished ninth. Yuta Koyama (2:08:46), Koki Yoshioka (2:10:13) and Daiji Kawai (2:10:50) are the other three Japanese who are currently in training for the race in Vienna.

Regarding mass participation organizers look ahead with confidence. “We are really happy with the interest runners are showing for our event. This is a great boost for all our activities. Two and a half years after the most recent Vienna City Marathon we are ready to go again.

When we organized smaller running events recently we already got a great response from the running community,” said Kathrin Widu, the Managing Director of the Vienna City Marathon. A recent anonymous survey among runners entered for the race showed that over 92.7% of them will compete in the Vienna City Marathon fully vaccinated.

What's next for Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge after Olympics?

Retirement is the last thing in the mind of Olympic marathon men's champion Eliud Kipchoge.

This came out clearly on Wednesday when the world record marathon holder arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi from Tokyo, Japan, where he had successfully defended his Olympic maratthon crown. 

In the race held last Sunday on the streets of Sapporo, Kipchoge claimed gold after timing two hours, eight minutes and 38 seconds to become only the third man to win consecutive marathon titles. 

Dutchman Abdi Nageeye bagged silver in 2:09.58, while Belgian Bashir Abdi settled for bronze in 2:10.00. 

Responding to questions from journalists moments after landing at JKIA, alongside 1500m silver medalists Timothy Cheruyot and marathoner Ruth Chepngetich, the 36-year-old remained non-committal on whether he would hang his boots after the triumph in Japan.

He gave the analogy of how parents who are blessed with a baby never plan for the next one immediately, saying he will announce his next plans in one-month's time. 

“I think it is good not to ask about retirement…When your wife delivered the first child, did you plan for the next one immediately?" Posed Kipchoge to a journalist, who responded in negation. 

Government officials who welcomed the athletes at the airport said the event was low key due to Covid-19 containment protocols which prohibit large gatherings. They said a ceremony will be held at a later day to celebrate all the athletes who made Kenya proud in Tokyo.

Kipchoge, who has earned the title G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) from his supporters due his unmatched success in athletics, said he is not bothered by the time he posted in Tokyo, noting that winning in the Olympics is to inspire people that everything is possible.

“We trained very well, participated in a good way and got the best results…To run in the Olympics is about humanity. It is about winning and showing the world that we as human beings can do it. It is not about how fast or slow you are,” said the father of three. 

The victory at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was Kipchoge’s 13th success in the 15 marathons he has raced in since 2013. He broke the world record in 2018 when he timed 2:01.39 in the Berlin Marathon.

About his future plans, Kipchoge reiterated that he will be nurturing talents. 

“I have a huge plan to inspire the youth and everybody in this world. I want to make running a Kenyan lifestyle. I want to make the young people to respect the sport, treat it like a real profession," he said.

2021 Tallinn Marathon will be going ahead in September

This September's Tallinn Marathon is still to go ahead, in-line with current coronavirus public event restrictions. Last year's event was cancelled.

While current restrictions limit outdoor event numbers to 12,000, provided checks are conducted, the full marathon entry list will be capped at 1,500 people, with the respective figures for the half-marathon and 10km race being 2,500 and 5,000.

Organizers of outdoor events with more than 100 participants are currently required to conduct coronavirus vaccination checks, either via proof of vaccination or proof of a recent, negative test result.

The event takes place September 11-12, with the full marathon on the second day.

Chief organizer Mati Lilliallik said that the plan is to hold a safe event for all, including local residents, and that no excessive risks will be taken, while routes will avoid the most densely-populated residential areas.

Registration is still open, Lilliallik said, though there is a clear and present risk that additional restrictions may be imposed by authorities between now and race day, or even that the event would need to be canceled.

Organizers say they are following national government, Tallinn City Government and Health Board (Terviseamet) regulations and recommendations at all times.

The half-marathon starts at 9 a.m. on September 11, the 10km race at 5 p.m., while the full 42.2-kilometer marathon starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday, September 12.

Cancellation or restrictions which cause too many issues for entrants will be followed by full refund or transferal of entry to the 2022 event, BNS reports, or alternatively entry into the virtual marathon – held for the first time last year – which runs throughout the entirety of September, i.e. participants get 30 days to complete the 42.2km on foot, either running or walking.

Last weekend brought around 2,600 triathletes to Tallinn, to take part in the annual Iron Man event.

US sprint star Cameron Burrell has dies at age 26 in an unexplained incident

Cameron Burrell, the fastest college athlete in the US and the son of Olympic gold medal-winning parents, died on Monday at the age of 26.

Burrell had become a national champion after winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) individual national championship in 100 metres in 2018 at the University of Houston, equaling his father Leroy Burrell’s accomplishment 28 years earlier.

Leroy Burrell, who is a track and field coach at the University of Houston and a gold-medal sprinter, said the family is going through “profound sorrow” over the death of his son.

“My family is extremely saddened with the loss of our son, Cameron, last night,” Leroy said in a release on Tuesday. “We are going through profound sorrow and ask that all of our friends, extended University of Houston family and the track and field community in the US and abroad allow us to gather with our closest family and friends. We are profoundly grief stricken, and thank everyone for the outpouring of prayers and support.”

The cause of Burrell’s death has not been revealed, but medical records accessed by TMZ indicate he died in a parking garage. Further details surrounding the death remain unknown.

The University of Houston announced his death on Tuesday while describing him as one of the university’s best track and field athletes.

“Words cannot express how we feel for Leroy, Michelle and their family. Cameron grew up around the Houston Athletics Department, worked hard and developed himself into one of our greatest Track and Field stars,” university athletics director Chris Pezman said in a release.

“To lose him so suddenly is tragic. We ask all University of Houston and track and field fans to keep Coach Burrell and his family in their thoughts and prayers.”

The sudden demise of a budding professional athlete has shocked those around him. He was believed by many to be following in the footsteps of his father and his godfather Carl Lewis, a legendary track star and nine-time Olympic gold medalist.

Burrell was a member of the Houston Cougars track and field team from 2013-18. In the same season he equaled his father’s accomplishment, the Atlanta native ran the anchor leg for the Cougars in a 4x100m relay team event, successfully defending its NCAA championship.

Former world marathon champion Geoffrey Kirui will lead stellar field for October's Boston Marathon

Geoffrey Kirui will be the man to beat at this year's Boston Marathon slated for October 11.

Kirui, who won the event four years ago, will be seeking to capture a second title on the famous street in Boston.

“Last year was a tough one for everyone. Boston is, for me, the exact right motivation and light at the end of the tunnel, as it will be for all returning champions and participants. This is the marathon where I feel at home, and I have big dreams for October,” Kirui said.  

Others to look for out are Lemi Berhanu from Ethiopia, best known for skipping across the Boylston Street finish en-route to winning in 2016. 

Yuki Kawauchi, winner of more than 30 international marathons and the Japanese record holder in the 50K, looks to become the first man from Japan since Toshihiko Seiko in 1987 to earn two Boston Marathon titles.

P3R and DICK’S Sporting Goods have signed a new multi-year partnership as title partner of the Pittsburgh Marathon weekend of events

DICK’S Sporting Goods Signs Multi-Year Partnership with P3R as Title Partner of the Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend of Events scheduled for April 29 - May 1, 2022.

“DICK’S Sporting Goods is a foundational partner of ours and makes this incredible weekend of events possible with their continued support,” said Troy Schooley, P3R CEO. “Our partnership is unique because DICK’S Sporting Goods understands the importance of our mission to encourage any and all to move with us, and through this partnership we get to see thousands of runners hit their next goal.”

Through this partnership, DICK’S Sporting Goods will continue to be the title partner of the DICK’S Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon Weekend of Events. DICK’S also will continue to support and grow participation in Kids of STEEL, a free training program that motivates families and kids across more than 180 schools in Western Pennsylvania to get moving and make healthier choices.

“We are excited to continue to support the running community of Pittsburgh and this great event,” said Mark Rooks, DICK’S Sporting Goods Vice President of Community Marketing. “Our partnership with P3R allows us to support runners of all ages in our local community. Partnering together on the marathon and other programs, like Kids of STEEL, not only allows us to support our local community, but supports our mission of helping youth athletes participate in sports.”

Last year, the weekend of events introduced a second half marathon course exclusively for the Run for a Reason Charity Program that organizers were unable to execute due to COVID-19. In 2022, those runners who earned their way into this exclusive start line by fundraising $1,500 for an official charity of their choice will have the first opportunity to run this brand new course.

500 participants will experience the first ever start line in Shadyside, as well as a full red carpet experience, unique medal and special race day bib. Learn more about registering as a charity runner here.

It has been two years since the event was in person, and P3R, DICK’S Sporting Goods, as well as the entire Steel City, are excited to welcome runners back to the start line for 2022.

Runners will be able to register for the 2022 weekend of events starting August 11 at the current early bird rate of $95. Learn more at thepittsburghmarathon.com.

About DICK’S Sporting Goods

Founded in 1948, DICK'S Sporting Goods is a leading omni-channel sporting goods retailer offering an extensive assortment of high-quality sports equipment, apparel, footwear and accessories. As of July 31, 2021, the company operated 731 DICK'S Sporting Goods locations across the United States, serving and inspiring athletes and outdoor enthusiasts to achieve their personal best through a combination of its dedicated teammates, in-store services and unique specialty shop-in-shops dedicated to Team Sports, Athletic Apparel, Golf, Outdoor, Fitness and Footwear.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, DICK’S also owns and operates Golf Galaxy and Field & Stream specialty stores, as well as GameChanger, a youth sports mobile app for scheduling, communications, live scorekeeping and video streaming. DICK'S offers its products through a dynamic eCommerce platform that is integrated with its store network and provides athletes with the convenience and expertise of a 24-hour storefront. For more information, visit the Investor Relations page at dicks.com.

What side of the road should you run on?

Lacing up your running shoes and heading out for an early-morning run is not only an effective way to keep in shape, but it also helps clear your mind for the busy workday ahead.

Despite this activity's fitness benefits, you're putting yourself at risk if you aren't aware of your surroundings -- especially while running in a high-traffic area. Choosing the correct side of the road for your run increases your chance of staying safe.

Always Face Traffic

When running along the side of the road, the Road Runners Club of America recommends always running against traffic. Labeling the side you use as the right or left side depends on your direction, but the key is to always move in a direction so that oncoming traffic is headed straight toward you. Running in this manner gives you the ability to monitor approaching vehicles and quickly move away from the road if a vehicle is traveling quickly or too closely to the side of the road.

Running Considerations

Don't just assume that you'll be safe because you've chosen to run on the correct side of the road. Keep as far away from the lane as possible, be especially alert at intersections and low-visibility corners, and always stop at busy intersections and crosswalks. If you run with a partner or a group, run no more than two people wide. When you encounter an area with a trail or path adjacent to the road, use this area for increased safety.

Visibility

Ensuring you're visible when you run along the side of the road is always important, but it becomes even more crucial when you run in low-light conditions. Dress in clothing with reflective panels or stripes; if you don't have such attire, affix a reflective strip or blinking light to your body or carry a flashlight. Avoid the temptation to listen to music as doing so can affect your ability to hear approaching vehicles. If possible, find a trail or track on which to run at night or early in the morning instead of the road.

Running Health Benefits

Provided you run on the correct side of the road and take the necessary safety precautions, running can be a useful exercise to add to your fitness routine. The activity has numerous benefits, from building strong bones to burning calories to even uplifting your mood. Aerobic exercises such as running, when you perform them regularly, can contribute to a greater quality of life and even increase your life expectancy.

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson will be targeting Paris 2024 gold

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson has set her sights on upgrading her 800m silver in 2021 to gold at the next Olympics in Paris in three years' time.

The 19-year-old broke Kelly Holmes' British record en route to claiming second place in the 800m in Tokyo.

"I want to turn this into a gold one day, that's the long-term goal in Paris," she told BBC Breakfast.

"I'm just going to carry on doing what I am doing because that is what has got me here."

Hodgkinson began 2021 aiming to add a European junior gold to the youth title she won in 2018, however a first sub-two minute time in January followed by European indoor gold and an impressive victory in Ostrava made her re-evaluate her plans.

In June, she surged past Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie to defend the national title she won against a weaker field 12 months earlier and book her place on the plane to Tokyo.

"I didn't really think about the enormity of it," said Hodgkinson of her Olympic final.

"I was most relaxed in the final because you have made it there, it is more the heats and the semi-finals where you get nervous.

"I just wanted to enjoy it because that is the biggest stage I have been on."

Hodgkinson was beaten to gold by another 19-year-old - Athing Mu of the USA - and their rivalry seems likely to be witnessed for years to come.

"Athing is a lovely girl and a great athlete," added Hodgkinson on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"To have two 19-year-olds on the podium was quite something I think, it bodes for a very bright future.

"We all get on really well, they are lovely girls and we have the utmost respect for each other. I think we are just going to push each other on throughout the years."

Full steam ahead for Sanlam Cape Town Marathon

The organizers of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon have confirmed that the planning for the event is full steam ahead and that the plans have seen a major overhaul to ensure the safety of all participants.

“Following extensive consultations and detailed review with the City of Cape Town, Athletics South Africa and National Government, we developed and presented an extensive COVID-19 Risk Mitigation Plan for the event, and received their full support to go ahead with our planning of a safe and enjoyable race on October 17,” confirms Renee Jordaan, Sanlam Cape Town Marathon Race Director.

The risk mitigation plan includes several adjustments to this year’s event format.

Marathon entries will be limited to 12,000 runners only.

The Start will move from Beach Road to Fritz Sonnenberg Road, with participants joining their start batches on the Cape Town Stadium Forecourt.

A staggered start will see runners setting off in seeded batched groups, allowing for ample social distancing, between 06h15 and 06h50.

Seeding will be based on past race results, not limited to the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon.

Runners’ finishing time will be calculated from mat-to-mat and not gun-to-mat.

The final cut-off is still six-and-a-half hours, and will be based on the last group of runners starting the race.

In order to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, all runners and crew will undergo COVID-19 Antigen testing in the 72 hours prior to the race. Testing will be compulsory regardless of vaccination status, and free of charge. Runners will be tested at Cape Town Stadium before entering the Expo space to collect their race numbers. Antigen test results will be available within 15 minutes.

“Due to COVID restrictions, we are sadly required to cancel the 5km and 10km Peace Runs, but the good news is that these events will take place in virtual format, and runners can run the Peace Runs along their favorite running routes, no matter where they are. The all-new 46km Cape Town Trail Marathon and 22km Trail Run will still go ahead on October 16,” says Sanlam Cape Town Marathon General Manager, Barry van Blerk.

The 5km & 10km Virtual Peace Runs will be free of charge. Runners can simply enter via www.capetownmarathon.com to receive App Download instructions. All 5km and 10km Peace Run entrants will receive a refund, and an email with detailed instructions will be sent to all affected runners.

Says Sanlam Cape Town Marathon Chairman, Francois Pienaar: “After a trying 18 months, we are grateful for the support from our major stakeholders that allows us to work towards staging Africa’s only World Athletics Gold Label marathon and the ASA Marathon Champs. The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon attracts thousands of athletes from across SA, Africa and the globe, and has a significant economic impact on the city. Africa is our home. This is our Race. And we can’t wait to welcome all our runners to Cape Town in October.”

Runners still hoping to be part of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon must hurry, as the revised entry limits mean that the marathon field is already 50% full, and it is expected that the remaining entries will be snapped up fast. The 22km Trail Run is sold out, with limited entries still available for the Trail Marathon. Visit www.capetownmarathon.com for more information and to enter.

Belarus sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya did not go home from Tokyo but to Poland

Krystina Timanovskaya was being forced to return home early after publically criticizing her coaches. Fearing for her safety, she cried out for help.

While the last athletes left in the Olympic village have now returned to their home countries, Belarusian sprinter Krystina Timanovskaya has instead gone to Poland, after she was nearly forced home early for criticizing her coaches. Fearing for her safety, she called out for help from the IOC and from Japanese police, and on Wednesday she flew to Warsaw instead of returning home.

The situation began to unfold on Sunday, Aug. 1, one day before Timanovskaya was due to compete in the women’s 200m. After a couple of Belarusian athletes were deemed ineligible to compete, her coaches entered her in the 4 x 400m relay, an event the 24-year-old had no experience in. She complained about the situation in a video on social media, which led to criticism by the Belarus media, which claimed she lacked team spirit.

A report by the BBC says it wasn’t long after that that Belarusian officials arrived at the sprinter’s room, telling her to pack her bags. Reportedly, the order to send her home had come from “high up” in Belarus. In a news conference in Warsaw, Timanovskaya said her grandmother warned her not to return home “because on TV, they say a lot of bad words about you, that you have some mental problems.” Her parents also warned her not to return, telling her the citizens were being encouraged to write hateful messages about her on social media.

Fearing she may face punishment back home, she managed to use Google Translate to get help from Japanese officials at the airport and has now fled to Poland, where she has been granted a visa. Her husband has also fled to Ukraine and is expected to join her in Poland shortly. According to the BBC, Timanovskaya’s main concern now is the safety and well-being of her family, who are still in Belarus.

In an interview with Reuters, the sprinter said her coaches did not expect that she’d be able to approach police at the airport. “They think that we are scared to make a move, that we are afraid to speak, afraid to tell the truth to the whole world. But I am not afraid,” she said. “I am not of those people who are scared.”

She would, however, like to go home. “I would want to return to Belarus. I love my country. I did not betray it and I hope I will be able to return,” she said.

There were a few other Belarusian Olympians who had already been prosecuted or jailed, or who fled for publicly voicing their opposition to the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, but Timanovskaya was not among them. According to the BBC, the IOC has started an investigation into the case, and already two Belarusian coaches have lost their Olympic accreditations for attempting to force Timanovskaya to leave the Games. The investigation is still ongoing.

How to prepare for your long run

Whether you’re training for an upcoming marathon or race or are just trying to reach a personal goal, running for long distances can be as challenging as it is rewarding. 

Training for a long-distance run is a serious commitment no matter your fitness level or current experience and should be a gradual process. We’ve provided some important considerations, exercises, and examples to help you train at your best!

Proper Running Form

There are entire blog entries dedicated to the do’s and don’ts of running, but the basics are pretty simple. 

When running, you’ll want to perform a full-body check-in, starting from the top. Your head should be level at all times, with your gaze cast directly in front of you. It’s OK to look around with your eyes, but your head should be upright and facing straight ahead. You should definitely avoid looking down at your feet, which creates poor neck alignment. 

You should also make sure that your shoulders aren’t hunched or slouched inward. Keep your shoulders open and allow them to move opposite from your feet: When your right foot comes forward, your left shoulder should come forward in turn. If you’re feeling tight in the shoulders, take a moment to shake out your arms and remember to relax.

Keep your arms close to your body with elbows bent at a 90-degree angle, moving in a chin-to-hip motion. Your arms should move smoothly back and forth at the shoulder as opposed to across your body, which can actually slow you down. You should also keep your hands relaxed, rather than balled into a fist.

Always remember that your core is the center of your power. You should be mindful of keeping your abs engaged and your spine lengthened, which is reinforced by keeping your head straight and your shoulders open.

Mentally checking your form while running can help maximize your energy output while avoiding injuries, especially toward the end of your run when a tired body is prone to losing form.

Training for a Long-Distance Run

As with any exercise, you should begin your training with a warmup and end with a cooldown. To start, you can gently swing your arms and legs one at a time, both back and forth and side to side. Shaking out your body and wiggling and swaying all of your limbs is also a good way to get the blood flowing and release tension.

You should end your cooldown with some light stretches to help avoid injury and keep your body loose for the next run. This should include not just your legs but your arms and back as well. Some good stretches to try are standing hamstring stretch, tricep stretch, cross-body shoulder stretch, side bend stretch, standing quad stretch, and hamstring/calf stretch.

If you’re a beginner runner, it’s important to be realistic with your goals. You won’t be ready to complete a 10K marathon in a matter of weeks. Even if you’re an advanced runner, it’s important to allow enough time to work up to your goal to avoid injuries and gradually increase your running length and duration.

Walk-Run Method 

If you’re a beginner runner, the walk-run method can be a good way to get you settled into a routine. All you need to do is separate your time between running and walking in intervals. 

You’ll want to start with shorter bursts of running buffered by longer periods of walking. A good set is to walk for one to two minutes, then run for 10 to 30 seconds. Keep this up for the duration of your run.

If this starting point is too intense for you, play with durations that work best for you while still providing a challenge. Inversely, if it’s not challenging enough, increase your running time to one to two minutes.

Interspersing your running with walking can reduce the likelihood of injuries while not being too overwhelming in intensity. 

Strength Training for Long-Distance Running

Running for long distances is a coordinated effort of both your cardiovascular and muscular systems. As such, strength training can be an important component in increasing the distance you’re able to run.

You’ll want to put an emphasis on exercises that target your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, and calf muscles to power your runs. Exercises such as squats (and its many variations), leg presses, and calf raises are good options for most fitness levels.

While a focus on the legs is obvious for running, it’s important to remember that running relies on the body as a whole. Not only is a stronger body more effective at running, but it also uses your oxygen and energy more efficiently.

Core workouts that target your abs and obliques, such as standard situps and their numerous variations, can help keep your foundation solid as you’re running. 

You should also include arm, shoulder, chest, and back workouts, such as pushups, pullups, and bench presses. 

Fueling Your Long-Distance Run

Your diet is also an important part of running. Providing your body with the vitamins and nutrients it needs will go a long way in helping you achieve a longer running distance. A small snack of carbohydrates and a little bit of protein consumed 15 to 60 minutes before a long run will help sustain your energy levels.  

You’ll also want to refuel with carbohydrates and proteins about 30 to 60 minutes after you return from your run. These are vital nutrients for muscle repair and recovery.

You’ll also want to maintain your hydration before, during, and after your run. Avoid sugary drinks or snacks and just stick with water. 

Whether you’re a beginner or have been running for years, there’s always room to increase your running distance. Be realistic with your expectations and set timeframes that support your goals in gradual increments. With proper training and a good diet, you’ll be able to run farther than you think, whether it’s one mile or a 10K.

French runner Morhad Amdouni defends himself after water bottle knocking over controversy in men´s marathon

There was a hugely controversial moment during the men's marathon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as France's Morhad Amdouni knocked over a row of water bottles and then picked up the last one. Amdouni was criticised on social media for his actions, but he has released a statement to defend himself.

French marathon runner Morhad Amdouni has defended himself after knocking over a row of water bottles at a rehydration station during the men’s marathon at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, saying they were too “slippery” for him to pick up.

Amdouni sparked controversy when he appeared to deliberately knock over every bottle at the station before grabbing the last one for himself.

Amdouni, who finished 17th in the race, six minutes behind winner Eliud Kipchoge, was criticized on social media for unsportsmanlike behavior.

But he has released a statement defending his actions, along with a close-up video of him knocking over the bottles.

“To put an end to all the controversy from the video, I show this video to actually understand what happened.

“To guarantee freshness to the bottles, they are soaked in water, which makes them slippery. However, it is clear that I am trying to get one from the beginning of the row but they slip as soon as we touch them.”

The marathon was run in temperatures of 27 degrees and 30 athletes dropped out over the course of the race.

Kipchoge defended his marathon gold medal with an imperious display.

The 36-year-old Kenyan pulled clear with 10 kilometres to go to finish a full 80 seconds ahead of the Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye, crossing the line in 2:08:38.

Kipchoge is just the third man in history to win consecutive Olympic marathon titles, adding yet another record to a glittering career.

3-Country Marathon is on, in person say organizers

Organizers of the 3-Country Marathon have committed to going ahead with their race next month.

In a statement, they said: “For many, it will indeed be like their first time after this long, non-competitive break from the marathon. We want to support you in this premiere with a clear statement:

The Sparkasse 3-Country Marathon will take place on October 10, 2021. In reality. Not virtual. And all of this with the full range of services in a highly professional environment.”

Register and prepare! www.sparkasse-3-laender-marathon.at

Hassan and Warner among Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony flag bearers

More than 50 athletes from the sport of athletics will carry the flags for their nation at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on Sunday (8).

Ten days of competition, which included three world records, 12 Olympic records and 28 area records, came to a close with the men’s marathon on Sunday morning, with Kenya’s marathon great Eliud Kipchoge retaining his title.

Now his fellow Olympic gold medallists Sifan Hassan, Damian Warner, Pedro Pichardo and Peruth Chemutai will be among the flag bearers returning to Tokyo's Olympic Stadium as the 2020 Games come to a close.

For Hassan, the moment will cap an incredible performance in Tokyo, with the Dutch star having claimed an unprecedented medal treble of 5000m and 10,000m golds plus 1500m bronze over nine days.

“I am so happy and I cried during the medal ceremony,” the 28-year-old said after her 10,000m triumph on Saturday. “I actually realised that I am done, the Games are over.”

Warner’s victory had been secured on Thursday, when he became just the fourth man in history to break the 9000-point barrier to win the decathlon title. The Canadian’s 9018-point tally was one of the 12 Olympic records set at the Tokyo Games.

Portugal’s Pichardo, meanwhile, leapt to the triple jump title, setting one of the 151 national records achieved at these Olympics with his winning mark of 17.98m. In that same competition, the bronze medallist was world indoor record-holder Hugues Fabrice Zango and as a result, Burkina Faso became the 100th country to have won an Olympic medal in athletics.

For Chemutai, victory came in the 3000m steeplechase. Other medallists in Tokyo carrying their nation’s flag will be Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega, Grenada’s Kirani James, Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot and New Zealand’s Valerie Adams.

With the 2020 Games delayed a year due to the pandemic, athletes and fans now have only three years to wait until Olympic action returns in Paris in 2024.

Athletics flag bearers at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony

Listed in the order in which they will march. List correct at time of publication and may be subject to change.

Antigua and Barbuda (ANT) - Cejhae Greene (men’s 100m)

Andorra (AND) - Pol Moya (men’s 800m)

Italy (ITA) - Lamont Marcell Jacobs (men’s 100m and 4x100m)

Uganda (UGA) - Peruth Chemutai (women’s 3000m steeplechase)

Uruguay (URU) - Maria Pia Fernandez (women’s 1500m)

Ecuador (ECU) - Glenda Morejón (women’s 20km race walk)

Estonia (EST) - Maicel Uibo (decathlon)

Eswatini (SWZ) - Sibusiso Matsenjwa (men’s 200m)

Ethiopia (ETH) - Selemon Barega (10,000m)

Eritrea (ERI) - Nazret Weldu (women’s marathon)

Netherlands (NED) - Sifan Hassan (1500m, 5000m and 10,000m)

Guyana (GUY) - Emanuel Archibald (men’s 100m)

Canada (CAN) - Damian Warner (decathlon)

Gambia (GAM) - Ebrima Camara (men’s 100m)

Cuba (CUB) - Zurian Hechavarría (women’s 400m hurdles and 4x400m)

Grenada (GRN) - Kirani James (men’s 400m)

Kenya (KEN) - Timothy Cheruiyot (men’s 1500m)

Cote d'Ivoire (CIV) - Marie-Josee Ta Lou (women’s 100m and 200m)

Costa Rica (CRC) - Noelia Vargas (women’s 20km race walk)

Comoros (COM) - Fadane Hamadi (men’s 110m hurdles)

Congo (CGO) - Gilles Anthony Afoumba (men’s 400m)

Zambia (ZAM) - Sydney Siame (men’s 200m)

Djibouti (DJI) - Souhra Ali Mohamed (women’s 1500m)

Jamaica (JAM) - Demish Gaye (men’s 400m and 4x400m)

Sri Lanka (SRI) - Yupun Abeykoon Mudiyanselage (men’s 100m)

Saint Lucia (LCA) - Levern Spencer (women’s high jump)

Chinese Taipei (TPE) - Chen Chieh (men’s 400m hurdles)

United Republic of Tanzania (TAN) - Male Alphonce Felix Simbu (men’s marathon)

Czech Republic (CZE) Jakub Vadlejch (men’s javelin)

People's Republic of China (CHN) - Su Bingtian (men’s 100m and 4x100m)

Tuvalu (TUV) - Karalo Hepoiteloto Maibuca (men’s 100m)

Dominica (DMA) - Thea Lafond (women’s triple jump)

Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) - Andwuelle Wright (men’s long jump)

Namibia (NAM) - Beatrice Masilingi (women’s 200m)

New Zealand (NZL) - Valerie Adams (shot put)

Haiti (HAI) - Mulern Jean (women’s 100m hurdles)

Pakistan (PAK) - Arshad Nadeem (men’s javelin)

Panama (PAN) - Jorge Castelblanco (men’s marathon)

Bahamas (BAH) - Megan Moss (women’s 4x400m)

Paraguay (PAR) - Derlys Ayala (men’s marathon)

Barbados (BAR) - Tia-Adana Belle (women’s 400m hurdles)

American Samoa (ASA) - Nathan Crumpton (men’s 100m)

Virgin Islands, US (ISV) - Eddie Vovett (men’s 110m hurdles)

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) - Amel Tuka (men’s 800m)

Botswana (BOT) - Anthony Pasela (men’s 4x400m)

Bolivia (BOL) - Angela Castro (women’s 20km race walk)

Portugal (POR) - Pedro Pichardo (men’s triple jump)

Honduras (HON) - Ivan Zarco Alvarez (men’s marathon)

South Africa (RSA) - Anaso Jobodwana (men’s 200m)

South Sudan (SSD) - Abraham Guem (men’s 1500m)

Republic of Moldova (MDA) - Andrian Mardare (men’s javelin)

Luxembourg (LUX) - Bob Bertemes (men’s shot put)

Rwanda (RWA) - John Hakizimana (men’s marathon)

Lesotho (LES) - Neheng Khatala (women’s marathon)

United States of America (USA) - Kara Winger (women’s javelin)

Running After 40: Time to Get Smart

As you get older, setting goals—and reaching them—will look a little different

Your forties: the decade when it all goes to hell. You get injured more. Your 5K time doubles. Recovery takes forever. At least that’s what everyone tells you will happen when you turn 40. And they’re (kind of) right. After 30, people can lose up to 5 percent of their muscle mass per decade, and VO2 max also tends to drop by 10 percent per decade. The result? Runners tend to get slower.

“You can expect to see a 1 percent decline in speed per year after you hit 40,” says Scott Murr, founder of the Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training at Furman University. “And that assumes you’re training properly. If you’re not, you can expect bigger declines.”

But plenty of runners have been successful well into their forties, particularly endurance runners. “I was probably the most successful in my forties,” says Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer, a professional ultrarunner best known for winning the most 100-mile trail races of any runner in history (38). But he wasn’t winning because he was becoming a faster runner as he aged. Instead he did it by running smarter. We’re not saying that by adhering to the following tips you’ll magically start winning 100s, but they will keep you running strong straight through your mid-life crisis years.

Welcome to the No Mistakes Zone

“Aging athletes have to adjust their expectations, otherwise they’ll get frustrated and potentially hurt,” Murr says. “I’m 57 years old. I can’t do what I could when I was 37 or 47. I can’t even run as fast as I could when I was 55.”

There are certain physiological truths that can’t be denied, but Pete Magill, a masters runner, coach and author of a series of books about running (including Build Your Running Body), says that training right can go a long way to improving performance as you age. “You can still do amazing things in your forties, but you have to do everything right,” Magill says. Loss of muscle mass, increasingly brittle connective tissue, and decreasingly dense bones are a recipe for injury. “When you enter your 40s, you’re in a no mistakes zone. You can’t go out the first day and run 30 minutes as fast as you can like you did when you were 20.”

Recover, Recover, and Recover Some More

The main reason masters runners get injured, according to Magill, is that they underestimate their need for downtime. “Our recovery requirements expand as we get older, and it’s hard for us to adjust,” Magill says. “We feel good and think we’re ready to run hard again, but feeling good is not a green light to push it.”

When you train hard too soon after a big day, you’re not giving your body the chance to finish rebuilding muscle, which is what makes you stronger and faster. “It takes more time than we think it does,” Magill says. “If you feel good two days after a hard run, wait a third day before doing a difficult workout again, otherwise eventually your body will break down.”

Meltzer didn’t start running ultras until he was 29 and he didn’t learn the importance of recovery until he was in his forties. “It took me a while, but I learned to run less and rest more,” Meltzer says.

But that doesn’t mean you should just sit on the couch. Magill says that runners need to adopt active rest—Meltzer, for example, gardens and hikes on down days. It also means incorporating mellower workouts into your training plan. “The trouble is that most runners turn every day into a medium day,” Magill says. “If you have difficult days, you have to have easy days. Most runners run their distance days faster than they need, which sabotages their hard workouts.”

Get Swole

Strength training will help combat that natural loss in muscle mass and bone density. Murr says there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for strength training, as long as you’re working all the major muscle groups.

Magill recommends a basic regiment that includes squats, deadlifts, and Nordic curls. It’s a program designed to strengthen your muscles in the way they’ll be used when you run to help prevent injury. 

“The best way to get fit is to train without interruption, without taking breaks for injuries,” Magill says. “Injuries sideline your ability to improve. If you can go a few years without an injury break, something magical happens; your body begins to function in a way you never thought possible. Everything reaches a peak.”

Chill the F—k Out

Meltzer is proof that runners can stay successful in their forties and beyond, and he says he didn’t personally change his goals as he aged. He still wanted to run long distances and for a long time he wanted to win races. He coaches a lot of masters runners who come to him with lofty goals, which he says is fine as long as they keep their aging bodies in mind while training for those goals.

“You can only get so much out of your body, but if you treat it properly you’ll get the most out of it,” Meltzer says, adding that treating your body properly often means runners need to learn how to relax. “I developed a better attitude about running as I got older. I realized that I’m a better runner when I’m doing what I enjoy. I like to be in the mountains and run up 3,000 vertical feet, so that’s how I train.” 

According to Meltzer, if masters runners need to change anything as they age, it’s in their mindset. Don’t be so hard on yourself. “Take it as it is. Enjoy it. Don’t get stressed about losing your speed in your forties,” he says. “Just enjoy what the decade brings you.”

30 runners DNF in Sapporo heat

It wasn’t as fast as we’ve come to expect, but from 30K in, there was never any doubt that Eliud Kipchoge was on his way to a repeat performance of his 2016 Olympic marathon win. He stepped on the gas and immediately started to put distance between himself and the rest of the small lead pack, crossing the finish line in 2:08:38, a minute and 20 seconds ahead of the next finisher. The race for silver and bronze was won by lesser known runners, Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands (silver, in a season’s best 2:09:58) and Bashir Abdi of Belgium, who crossed the line for the bronze medal two seconds later, in 2:10:00 (also a season’s best time).

With this win, Kipchoge joins the greats who have won back-to-back marathons at an Olympic Games. He is the third runner to do so – and in 2024, he will have the chance to become the only athlete ever to three-peat in the marathon.

Nageeye is one of Kipchoge’s training partners on the NN Running Team. This was his best marathon performance, in terms of finishing position; he has two top-10 finishes at the Boston Marathon (seventh in 2018 and eighth in 2016). The same is true for Abdi, who is a training partner of Mo Farah’s and paced Farah to his one-hour world record on the track in 2020. His best finish before today was seventh at the 2019 London Marathon.

Despite the heat, Canadians Ben Preisner, Trevor Hofbauer and Cam Levins had excellent races, Preisner in particular, who finished in 46th position, in 2:19:27), followed closely by Hofbauer in 48th (2:19:57). Preisner was in 73rd position at 5K and made steady progress as he made his way up throughout the race. Levins was in good shape through the first half, but was not able to maintain the pace, dropping to 72nd in 2:28:43 – a very respectable result, considering the high attrition rate.

Heat and humidity result in multiple DNFs

It was another hot, muggy morning in Sapporo for the final event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The lead pack consisting of Kipchoge, defending bronze medallist from 2016 and U.S. Trials winner Galen Rupp and 2019 world champion Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, among others, set off at 7 a.m., settling into a comfortable pace of just over three minutes per kilometre. Jeison Alexander Suarez of Colombia maintained a position at or near the front for more than half of the race as athletes stuffed their hats with ice to keep their bodies as cool as possible.

Around halfway, Kipchoge was seen exchanging fist bumps with Daniel Do Nascimento of Brazil, but a short time later, Do Nascimento collapsed, then rallied, then dropped out. By halfway, 10 men had already left the course, including 2012 Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich, 2020 London Marathon winner Shura Kitata and Jack Rayner of Australia, who was one of Kipchoge’s pacers at INEOS 1:59. Sisay Lemma (third at Berlin and Tokyo marathons, with a PB of 2:03) appeared to be struggling soon thereafter. Galen Rupp led the pack briefly, but for the most part appeared willing to let others do the work at the front; he ended up finishing eighth. By 27K, the lead pack had dwindled to about 10, with Kipchoge, Rupp and Suarez leading; Japanese record holder Suguru Osaka was still in the lead pack, as was Desisa.

At 30K, Rupp dropped further and further off the pace. Amos Kipruto also dropped back (eventually joining the long list of DNFs), and the chase pack dwindled to 2019 Boston Marathon winner Lawrence Cherono, Ayad Lamdassem of Spain, Nageeye and Abdi. Osaka tried to come back to them, as Kipchoge stormed toward the finish line with a bounce in his step. Cherono ultimately finished fourth, Lamdassem fifth and Osako sixth.

Top 10 finishers

Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)

Abdi Nageeye (Netherlands)

Bashir Abdi (Belgium)

Lawrence Cherono (Kenya)

Ayad Lamdassem (Spain)

Suguru Osako (Japan)

Alphonce Felix Simbu (Tanzania)

Galen Rupp (USA)

Othmane El Goumri (Morocco)

Koen Naert (Belgium)

The Unbelievable True Story of the Craziest Olympic Marathon-Only 14 men crossed the finish: one after hitchhiking, one after napping, and one—the winner—after drinking rat poison.

On a broiling, 90-degree August afternoon in 1904, 32 men dressed largely in white with leather belts gathered at Francis Olympic Field, a newly constructed stadium in St. Louis. Flanked by other men in suits and porkpie hats, they were about to compete in what would become the most infamous marathon in history. The event was part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the 1904 World’s Fair. Within the crowd of dapper onlookers was the man in whose honor the stadium was named: David R. Francis, a former Missouri governor and president of the organizing committee for the Olympic Games. At 3:03 p.m. he fired the starting gun; so began the first Olympic marathon race on U.S. soil.

The race started with five laps around the track and a flurry of lead changes. Among the cast of largely American runners were three previous Boston Marathon winners. None of them would finish. In fact, only 14 men eventually completed the race: one after hitchhiking, one after taking a nap, and one—the eventual gold medalist—after drinking strychnine mixed with raw egg and brandy. Not only would the percentage of finishers rank as the lowest of any Olympic marathon, but the event itself would be marred by the racism that pervaded and even guided the 1904 Olympics and World’s Fair.

Frank Pierce from the Seneca Nation—the first Native American to compete in the Olympics—briefly took to the front. Pierce was followed closely by fellow Americans Arthur Newton, Thomas Hicks, and Sam Mellor. 

As the men made the third lap, another American, Fred Lorz, took a turn in the lead. Lorz, a bricklayer by trade, had the muscular build of a sprinter but had finished in the top five at the previous two Boston Marathons. Close behind, the race claimed its first casualty: The 1903 Boston champ, John Lordan, Irish-born but running for the United States, began vomiting and walked off the track to register the first DNF. 

Hicks, who’d finished second behind Lordan at Boston that previous year, passed Lorz to lead racers out of the stadium. Hicks purportedly made his living as a professional clown. Yet in the few surviving pictures of the race, Hicks appears to be the most serious man in St. Louis, standing uncomfortably straight at the start line with a near scowl.

Striding onto the dirt roads beyond Francis Field, the runners were greeted by red flags marking the route. The man responsible for those flags, along with much of the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, was James E. Sullivan, head of the Physical Culture Department for the World’s Fair. Sullivan intended to use the Games to showcase white American excellence through a series of events that ranged from the poorly executed, like the marathon, to the cartoonishly racist, like the fair’s Anthropology Days—a two-day Olympic-style competition during which nonwhite performers from the fair’s living anthropology displays competed in sports they’d never played before. The idea was to flaunt their athletic inferiority to the world. A headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Barbarians meet in Athletic Games,” made no bones about that intention.

Sullivan also designed the 24.85-mile race (26.2 became the standard in 1921) as an experiment to test his own exercise science theories. Chief among his beliefs was that of “purposeful dehydration.” Following the conventional wisdom of the time, Sullivan insisted that drinking (or eating) during exercise would only upset the stomach. Accordingly, there was only one water station on the course, near mile 12.

Three miles in, Newton, who’d won bronze just a day before in the steeplechase, held fifth, the same as his finishing position at the 1900 Olympic marathon. Hicks, the professional clown, fell back to seventh. And Albert Corey, a French-born, U.S.-representing marathoner who lived in Chicago and worked at a slaughterhouse, ran in ninth place. 

Trailing close behind were Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani, both running their first marathon. The two members of South Africa’s Tswana tribe were the first Black Africans to compete in the Olympics. In fact, they were the only Black athletes to represent that nation until the end of apartheid 86 years later. Taunyane and Mashiani had no formal racing experience and were in St. Louis performing in the World’s Fair’s Boer War Exhibition. Taunyane and Mashiani had been message runners for the Boers and were part of a cast of hundreds that twice a day reenacted battles from the recent Second Boer War, between Dutch colonist Boers and the British Empire, in front of thousands of spectators. 

Leading the way out of the stadium was a vanguard of horsemen, riding ahead of the racers to clear the dry dirt roads. Right behind them, a motorcade of journalists, doctors, support teams, and race officials followed, producing a steady brown cloud that enveloped the runners for most of the course.

At six miles Newton led, with 1902 Boston champ Sam Mellor in pursuit on the dusty road. Behind them were Lorz and Félix Carvajal, a Cuban mailman who’d arrived at the race in a long-sleeve shirt, hat, pants, heavy shoes, and a notable mustache. (A helpful Samaritan assisted Carvajal in cutting his pants into shorts prior to the start of the race.) Carvajal had raised the money for his journey to America by running exhibitions in his native Cuba, but after gambling away his funds on a layover in New Orleans, he’d hitchhiked the rest of the way to St. Louis. Carvajal was among the favorites to win; however, he was also a loquacious man, frequently stopping for mid-competition banter with spectators.

Approaching the 10-mile marker, Fred Lorz, plagued by muscle cramps, flagged down a car (likely that of his coach) for a ride back to Francis Field. Carvajal also stopped, but to find a snack. According to some accounts, Carvajal ate rotten apples from an orchard along the road. One writer observed Carvajal playfully swiping peaches from spectators after they’d denied his request for fruit. Either way, Carvajal suffered from stomach cramps and lay down to take a short nap. 

At mile 12, the racers encountered the well that served as the lone water station. Sullivan had intended to test purposeful dehydration in the race by observing how athletes would perform in high-intensity work, on a hot summer day, with a limited amount of water available to drink. 

Undeterred by the fact that fewer than half of his marathoners finished, he’d later write a book, 1909’s Marathon Running, which reiterated his continued belief in the power of water abstinence. “Don’t get into the habit of drinking and eating in a marathon race; some prominent runners do, but it is not beneficial,” he wrote. 

Halfway through the marathon, Mellor was leading, with Newton and Hicks, respectively, in second and third place. Mellor had been the pre-race favorite. In addition to his Boston win, he’d podiumed there in 1901 and 1903, and he’d won the Pan American Exposition marathon in 1901, in 104-degree heat. But this time, Mellor’s pace slowed by mile 16 to combat cramping. By another account, he incorrectly believed he’d taken a wrong turn and tired himself out running backward on the course. In any case, he soon dropped out of the race. Hicks took the lead, with Newton trailing.

Hicks, now beyond the water station, began to grow desperately thirsty. He had two trainers following in a car, and he began to beg them for a drink of water. They refused, and instead gave his mouth and shoulders a sponge bath in an attempt to relieve the thirst without hydrating their athlete. 

Near mile 19, William Garcia, a racer out of San Francisco who was in fourth place at the time, collapsed. He likely experienced the closest brush with death of any marathoner that day. On the side of the road, he began coughing up blood and passed out before being discovered and taken to a hospital. The combination of heat, dehydration, and roughly two hours of running through dust clouds landed Garcia in surgery for a dust-lined esophagus and a torn stomach lining. 

Lorz, meanwhile, was feeling refreshed after riding in a car for 11 miles after his cramping episode. He decided to continue the last miles on foot, into the stadium, and across the finish line to claim victory in under three hours. Just as First Daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth was crowning Lorz as the victor, a spectator revealed that Lorz had been driven along the course. Lorz defended his victory as merely a joke, but the stunt earned him a lifetime ban. 

As Lorz was explaining himself away, Hicks held the lead with roughly four miles remaining, but he continued to suffer from dehydration. His trainers, making history, decided to give him something stronger than a damp sponge. In the first recorded instance of performance-enhancing drug use in the Olympics, Hicks was fed a combination of egg whites and 1 milligram of strychnine sulfate. In high doses, this compound is used as rat poison. At lower doses, however, it is a stimulant and currently prohibited for in-competition use by the World Anti-Doping Agency. 

A ghastly Hicks continued, but his already mechanical form deteriorated and his pace slowed as he stopped to walk up a hill two miles from the finish. This earned Hicks a second dose of the strychnine mixture, plus a swig of brandy. It worked: Hicks picked up his pace to finish in 3:28. It was the slowest winning marathon time in Olympic history—by a 30-minute margin. 

Albert Corey finished second at 3 hours and 34 minutes, and 13 minutes later Newton took third place. Carvajal’s recovery nap delivered him to fourth place, while Len Taunyane (despite being chased a mile off course by a dog) took ninth and Mashiani was 12th. After the podium, no finish times were recorded (or they were lost), but finishers trickled in for hours.

Sullivan and his kind claimed the marathon as the evidence of racial superiority they sought—despite producing an event that was almost entirely stocked with white runners, many with coaches in tow. Charles J. P. Lucas, a physician and writer who traveled by car observing and assisting Hicks, wrote in his blandly titled book The Olympic Games 1904 that the marathon established “the stamina of the Caucasian race and the superior distance-running powers.” His book did not mention that while Taunyane and Mashiani finished ninth and 12th, their white South African teammate, Bertie Harris, never made it back to Francis Field.

The infamy of the race, however, set in quickly. Two days after its running, the Post-Dispatch dubbed it a “man-killing event” and reported that Olympic committee members were calling for its removal from future Games. Sullivan jumped on the bandwagon and quickly turned on the event, publicly decrying it and telling the paper “a 25-mile run...is asking too much of human endurance.”

Sullivan’s bid to end the Olympic marathon failed, and the event continued at the 1908 London Games—notably with only one 1904 competitor returning, mid-packer Sidney Hatch. Sullivan did have one perverse victory in 1908, though. In addition to being a white supremacist, he was also an outspoken misogynist, and as the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee he was able to bar American women from competing in London. But that was cold comfort for his racist side: To his chagrin, 1908 would also mark the first Olympic gold medal awarded to a Black athlete, John Taylor, who ran on the winning U.S. distance medley relay squad.

Hicks would never run another marathon. Like many of the athletes, including Taunyane and Mashiani, he practically disappeared from recorded history after the race. Corey returned to Chicago, racing annually in an early iteration of the Chicago Marathon and winning in 1908. Newton would compete in his third event of the Games four days later, taking gold in a four-mile team race that fielded just two teams. (Corey claimed another silver on the losing squad.) And Lorz’s lifetime ban would last less than a year—he later won the 1905 Boston Marathon.

Carvajal continued to travel for marathons. In 1905 he returned to St. Louis to take third in the inaugural All-Western Marathon. The following year, the Cuban government sent him to Greece for an Olympics-adjacent marathon only for Carvajal to disappear en route in Italy. After being presumed dead, complete with newspaper obituaries, he reappeared in Havana several months later and resumed racing. 

Eliud Kipchoge Wins Olympic Marathon Again, This Time In Tokyo

Eliud Kipchoge delivered a dominating performance in the Tokyo Olympics men’s marathon, pulling away from his competition after the halfway point and finishing 1 minute, 20 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands on a steamy day in Sapporo, Japan.

Kipchoge of Kenya, the world record holder in the marathon, is the first men’s repeat Olympic winner since Waldemar Cierpinski of the former East Germany in 1976 and 1980. Kipchoge finished in 2 hours, eight minutes, 38 seconds.

Nageeye clocked in at 2:09:58, and Bashir Abdi of Belgium finished third, in 2:10:00.

American Galen Rupp, who won bronze in the marathon at the Rio 2016 Games, finished eighth, more than three minutes back in 2:11:41.

Galen Rupp of the U.S. finished eighth in the Olympic marathon. 

After the 15-mile mark, Kipchoge, in front of the lead pack, turned and looked over his shoulder at Rupp and said something to him. Shortly after that, Kipchoge took off and began building his insurmountable lead.

NBC commentators said that Kipchoge seemed irritated with Rupp in the encounter.

“We saw Kipchoge get annoyed, which is so, so rare,” NBC commentator Kara Goucher said.

Rupp won the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in February 2020 and had targeted gold in Sunday’s race. He won silver in the 10,000 meters in London 2012 and bronze in the Rio 2016 marathon.

American Jacob Riley finished 29th, in 2:16:26, and American Abdi Abdirahman 41st in 2:18:27. Abdirahman, 44 years old and competing in his fifth Games, is the oldest U.S. runner to ever make the U.S. Olympic team.

The 36-year-old Kipchoge, competing in his fourth Olympics, entered the race with three medals: a bronze in the 5,000 meters in Athens 2004, silver in the 5,000 in Beijing 2008 and gold in the marathon in Rio 2016. He failed to qualify for Kenya’s team for London 2012.

Kipchoge famously broke the two-hour marathon barrier on a closed-course race in Vienna in October 2019, part of a years-long effort by Nike that included a new type of shoes. The thick-soled shoes with superlight cushioning and a carbon-fiber plate have spawned copycats, lowered finishing times and taken over the sport.

Kipchoge was so in command of the race that more than 10 miles in, he appeared to fist-bump with Brazil’s Daniel Do Nascimento.

Do Nascimento, in fourth place at the half-marathon mark, soon dropped out then crumpled onto the road.  

It was over 80 degrees with humidity over 70%. Runners shoved bags of ice down the backs of their singlets or tucked cooling packs under hats. More than two dozen runners didn’t finish the race.

Runners move past the Susukino district while competing in the men’s marathon.

Frank Shorter was the last American man to win the Olympic marathon, in 1972.

Since then, the gold has been won twice by the East German, three times by Kenyans (including twice by Kipchoge), twice by Italians, and once by an Ethiopian, a South African, a Korean, a Portugese and a Ugandan.

U.S. runner Molly Seidel was a surprise medalist in the women’s Olympic marathon Saturday, finishing in third to take the bronze.

Netherlands' Sifan Hassan won the 10,000m to seal her second gold and third medal of the Tokyo Olympics.

The 28-year-old, who had been seeking an unprecedented golden treble, had missed out on that feat when she took bronze in the 1500m but still takes home a hat-trick of medals after adding Saturday's gold to her 5,000m title.

Despite running three races in Tokyo's heat in the last few days, Hassan found an extra gear in the last lap.

She won in 29 minutes 55.32 seconds.

It had been a highly anticipated race with world champion Hassan pitted against Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey, who broke the Dutchwoman's world record in June, and it did not disappoint.

Hassan tucked in just behind the leaders and with about 3,000 metres remaining, she increased her pace to sit second behind Gidey.

On the final turn Hassan surged past the Ethiopian, who then faded further to take bronze after Bahrain's Kalkidan Gezahegne passed her to get the silver.

Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen takes 1,500m gold in Olympic record

In the last individual final on the track at Olympic stadium, the young Norwegian, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, has taken the gold medal, outkicking his Kenyan rival, world champion Timothy Cheruiyot in a furious race over the final 200m. Ingebrigtsen crossed the line in 3:28.33, an Olympic record surpassing the one set just a few days ago by Abel Kipsang, who finished fourth.

Cheruiyot took silver in 3:29.01. Great Britain’s Josh Kerr unleashed a monster kick to take the bronze medal, only 0.04 seconds behind Cheruiyot.

The field looked on race favorite and world champion to take the race out swiftly, and he did. The Australian, Stewart McSweyn, looked strong in third place in the first few laps, with Ollie Hoare and Team GB’s Jake Wightman following closely behind but they fell off as they reached the bell. With one lap to go, Cheruiyot took off, with Ingebrigtsen right on his heel, but ultimately he didn’t have enough left in the tank to secure the race.

This is Ingebrigtsen’s first Olympic medal in his Games debut. The Norwegian, who is only 20, has a prolific resume over the European circuit, finishing fourth in this event at the world championships in Doha in 2019.

This is the final day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The final events are the men’s 4x400m final and the men’s marathon.

Molly Seidel Shocks the World With Bronze Medal, as Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kogei Go 1-2 in 2020 Olympic Marathon

In one of the most remarkable and unlikely runs ever by an American distance runner, Wisconsin native Molly Seidel earned a bronze medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic marathon, running 2:27:46 in the heat of Sapporo on Saturday morning. Seidel established herself near the front of the race early, and remained there throughout. Late in the race, Seidel was in a battle for bronze with Israel’s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, but with three miles to go, Salpeter stopped running, leaving Seidel in bronze-medal position, which she protected to the finish line.

Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir, the world record holder in the women’s-only half marathon, pulled away from teammate Brigid Kosgei, the marathon world record holder, in the final two kilometers to take the gold in 2:27:20. Kosgei settled for the silver in 2:27:36, her first loss in her her last five marathons.

The story for American distance running fans was Seidel, running in only her third marathon of her life (her first was the Olympic Trials marathon in 2020 to get here). Seidel beat five sub-2:20 women. She entered the race with a 2:25:13 personal best and yet was in the conversation for the gold until the final 2k. She joined American running legends Joan Benoit Samuelson (gold in 1984) and Deena Kastor (silver in 2004), as the only American women to medal in the Olympic marathon.

The race

At race time, it was sunny and 76 degrees with 87% humidity, despite the race being moved up an hour because of the heat to start at 6 a.m. local.

As a result, the race went out slow, with 5K and 10K splits of 18:02 and 36:16 for the leaders (2:32:50 marathon pace at 10K). The lead pack remained about 40 or 50 women strong at the 10-kilometer split, but the effect of the heat was unmistakable, with women applying ice bags on themselves and running wide to get into the shade. By this point, US champion Aliphine Tuliamuk had fallen off the pace (she would eventually drop out).

From there, as the race advanced north on a slight downhill, it picked up. Honami Maeda of Japan took a few turns at the front, as did Americans Seidel and Sally Kipyego, but it was mostly shared. The next two 5K splits (17:31 and 17:41) were quicker and reduced the lead pack to less than 20 women by 20K. Zeineba Yimer, a 2:19 woman from Ethiopia, dropped out at the 17K mark.

The lead group went through halfway in 1:15:14, and the lead group was whittled down to 11 with Ethiopian contender Birhane Dibaba falling off the back.

Americans Seidel and Kipyego remained in the lead pack of 12 at 25K (Volha Mazuronak of Belarus rejoined the lead pack between halfway and 25k), which the women went through in 1:28:51 (2:29:47 pace). Ethiopian Roza Dereje Bekele (2:18:30 pb) and Salpeter (2:17:45 pb), along with the three Kenyans, were pushing the tempo slightly.

After that split, as the women continued to weave through the north Sapporo suburbs and Hokkaido University, racers started dropping off the lead pack like flies: first Kipyego, then Mazuronak and then a big casualty — Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya, the reigning world champ, falling back around the 29K mark.

Meanwhile at the front, Seidel led the entire 18th mile in around 5:26. The lead group of nine went through 30K in 1:46:03 (17:12 previous 5K, quickest of the race). The Japanese spectators pulled for their countrywoman Mao Ichiyama, who was still there.

The 30-35K split was the quickest of the race (16:54) and those five kilometers caused the biggest carnage: four women, including Ichiyama and Dereje, the final Ethiopian, dropped off the lead pack.

Now with the group down to five and less than five miles remaining, and Seidel continuing to run with confidence and share the lead with the two remaining Kenyans, the curiosity surrounding Seidel turned into a real possibility…could she snag a medal?

Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba dropped off just after the 35K mark, making it a four-woman race for three medals: Kosgei, Jepchirchir, Salpeter, and Seidel. Women with personal bests of 2:14, 2:17, 2:17, and 2:25. But in the summer Japan heat, the strongest women would win, not the fastest.

In the 24th mile, the Kenyans finally struck, Jepchirchir throwing in a surge and Kosgei covering it. They opened up a small gap on Salpeter and Seidel immediately, and Salpeter had a few meters on Seidel.Before one even had time to process whether Seidel’s fairytale quest for a medal was coming to an end, her fortunes changed drastically. At the 38-kilometer mark, Seidel caught Salpeter, who was still less than five seconds behind the leaders, but slowing slightly. Salpeter, however, was broken. Within a span of seconds she slowed to a walk and Seidel was into the bronze position, with the leaders still in her sights, Jepchirchir in front and Kosgei sitting on her.

At 40k, Jepchirchir and Kosgei were still together with Seidel only six seconds back, 31 seconds ahead of fourth place, comfortably in bronze position, barring a blowup. Seidel appeared to be closing on the leaders. Could she even get the silver or the gold?

Not quite. Jepchirchir had one final gold-medal move, dropping Kosgei just after the 40K split and quickly opening a 10-second gap. She would extend her winning margin to 16 seconds by running the final 2.195 kilometers at 5:23 pace.

Kosgei was fading slightly but so was Seidel. Both held their positions through the line, as Seidel could not quite summon the finish to get back to Kosgei and finished 10 seconds behind her in the bronze medal position.

Seidel yelled in delight as she crossed the finish line, while Kosgei looked slightly disappointed with the silver. The third American, Sally Kipyego, finished 17th in 2:32:53.

The temperature at the finish was 84 degrees with 67% humidity.

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This Is the Shoe for You If

You consider your trail shoes to be an extension of your body and training and don't want to compromise. You spend so much time and effort directed at marginal performance gains that you are willing to invest the additional cost to purchase a shoe that will allow you to push the envelope - because it provides the best fit and performance, and allows you to be your best. And you like really nice-fitting shoes.

Testers were wowed by the performance of SL:PDX, even on non-Portland, Pacific Northwest trails for which the founders designed the shoe. The more technical the trail, the more the shoes showed off, whether on sandstone-riddled, dry mountainous singletrack, deep sand, rocky washouts, or even over "open prairie, thrashing through knee-high grasses with every step uncertain on the knobby tussocks." Whatever the terrain, testers raved, "They showed off in every context."One tester observed the shoe felt "like it was made just for me" and performed with "sure-footed agility" and "reliability" on a wide variety of surfaces. Glowed another tester: "They are the most comfortable, and probably most capable trail shoe I've ever worn."It wasn't any one quality that shined through, but rather, the combination of innovative aspects that came together to leave such positive impressions. The shoe's many options to personalize the stiffness, lugs and fit means it easily morphs into different rides, even allowing you to adjust some of the fit and feel on the fly. But, apart from the ability to customize, the premium materials and design make your feet smile.The upper is made of knit Dyneema, a Netherlands-based fiber that is reportedly 15 times stronger than steel, and, they say, gets its positive attributes through long-molecule chains and tight intermolecular bonding. Whatever that means, it feels both durable and comfortable, wrapping the foot in a stretchy mesh, while plush padding around the heel and multiple straps over the instep hold your foot securely.

Add to that the unique precision of not one, but two, BOA Fit System dials that secure the wrapping support straps - one for the lower part of the foot and the other for the upper. The dual BOA Li2 wheels let you literally dial-in the precise fit to optimize comfort and security for your foot shape and preferred hold on different parts of the foot. For the first time on a running shoe, these dials are also multidirectional, allowing you to either advance or back off tension click by click, which we found exceptionally useful for creating the right tension on each and for adjusting the fit on the run as terrain conditions changed or our feet got sweaty or swollen.The 3mm Michelin textile web outsole is both grippy and quick to shed mud, with aggressive  lugs that can be clipped to match your form and the terrain. You can also open drainage ports for runs with water crossings. The flexible sole wraps around underfoot terrain and provided excellent traction on firm or soft footing, wet or dry.

Inside, you step down into a contoured layer of Pebax foam - think super-shoe soft, bouncy and resilient - that serves as both sock liner and the top half of the midsole. Lying between it and the thin, flexible EVA bottom platform, you find a removable Carbitex carbon-fiber plate. Removable because it is stiff in one direction and flexible in the other, allowing you to easily flip it over and adjust the ride. The "stiff" side still flexes quite easily but provides a powerful, energy-return pop on toe off. Turn the plate over and you get more of a free-flex feel with the plate providing a bit of stability - or remove the plate completely if you prefer a more minimalist feel for the ground. Note: Unlike clipping off outsole lugs which is a permanent modification, you can flip these as often as you like to match the terrain or how you feel that day.

However they are configured, we felt sure-footed and swift in them. "My biggest impression was that I didn't need to hold back, because they made me feel confident in my landings and stability," said one tester. Another praised the ride for being "both close to the ground and completely cushioned - a remarkable combination of stability, balance, comfort and trail feel."

Downside? We did have a weed snag and pop a BOA dial out, releasing the tension - but to be fair, we were going through pretty thick stuff, and resetting the fit with a quick turn of the dial was far easier than retying a lace. Also in terms of fairness: no testers did a really long run in them yet, and if there is a weakness that might reveal it, as these shoes ride best when dancing over terrain at a good pace. But the Pebax foam will coddle your feet for as long as your stride will hold up and we're anxious to give it a go at the soonest opportunity.

A bonus: the upper is stitched to the sole, for durability and because this "Dyneema moccasin stitch" makes the shoe easier to recycle, given there is no toxic glue for sealants. Speedland keeps with the green theme (and color) through a give-back program that invests 10% of its profits to outdoor programs that will be selected with the help of its athletes.

Worth the price tag? That's hard for us to decide for you, but one tester bought a full-price pair for his significant other, and they will no doubt be the pair we reach for when heading off road in the coming weeks and months

Why The Rocky Mountain Slam Is The Toughest Race Series In Ultrarunning

Almost every year, Leland Barker creates trophies for runners who complete the Rocky Mountain Slam, an annual test of endurance, fitness, perseverance, altitude and logistics.

To claim one of Barker's trophies, a big hunk of chainsaw-cut wood burned with the athlete's name, date and races, runners must complete four out of five designated 100-mile trail races over a 3-month span. Since the first completed slam in 1999, it has been accomplished just 59 times by 30 runners. Some years, as many as eight runners have earned the prize. However in other years, it's been zero.

"It's definitely a feeling of accomplishment," says Andrew Barney, 44, of American Fork, Utah, who's done it four times. "I know a lot of runners who say they only run one 100 a year, and that's big enough for them."

The only runner who hasn't collected the big wooden trophy is Barker himself. He completed the Slam in 2003 but never gave himself the award.

"I meant to," he says, laughing. "I had a piece of wood saved to make an award for me and I never got around to making it."

That's just fine with him, though. The 59-year-old resident of Smithfield, Utah, has gotten all he's wanted out of the Slam-and more.

Barker is the race director of the annual Bear 100 Mile Endurance Run. The race, which crosses the Utah-Idaho border, was founded in 1999. Barker wanted a way to attract more runners to his race. He's not certain of the date, or who actually came up with the idea, but says the Slam sprouted from a discussion between himself, Roch Horton, Hans-Dieter Weisshaar and Errol Jones. The idea was inspired by the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, which has been around since the 1980s and challenges runners to complete the nation's four oldest and most prestigious 100-milers in a calendar year.

To complete the Rocky Mountain Slam, men and women have to finish four out of five annual races in the Rockies: the Bighorn 100 in Montana in June, the Hardrock 100 in Colorado in July, the Leadville Trail 100 in Colorado in August, the Wasatch Front 100 in Utah in early September and the Bear 100 in late September. Leadville and Wasatch are also part of the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning.

"We wanted the Bear to be the final race," says Barker.

It's an informal fellowship. Runners don't have to register, notify anyone of their intentions or pay any special fees. The only requirements are to finish the two mandatory races-Hardrock and Bear-along with two of the other three. Then, Barker recognizes those runners at the awards ceremony. They earn Barker's wood trophy and, sometimes, a T-shirt.

It's so informal that the first runner to complete the Rocky Slam in 1999 was grandfathered in. James Ballard of Montana ran the Hardrock, Leadville, Wasatch and Bear races the year before Barker and his buddies had even come up with the idea.

Nobody earned the Slam in 2000. Betsy Kalmeyer of Colorado was the lone qualifier in 2001. In 2002, no one earned the trophy. Then, in 2003, Barker was one of five slammers, a group that included Weisshaar, a 63-year-old from Germany who would go on to be a six-time slammer, the most ever.

"He was amazing," says Barker. "He was doing it when he was my age. I'm no longer doing 100-mile races. Actually, he was older than me when I started doing it. He didn't go real fast, he was one of the last finishers usually. But he really enjoyed doing 100-mile races. He'd come to the United States and do one every weekend all summer long."

Most judge Hardrock as the toughest race of a difficult bunch. "It's an amazing amount of climb and descent," says Barker.

In fact, it's more than 66,000 feet of elevation change at an average elevation of 11,000 feet. Each race has its challenges. Leadville is run at high altitude, with a 30-hour time limit. The Wasatch ("100 miles of heaven and hell," is its slogan) has big climbs and descents, as do the Bear and Bighorn. To Barney, the five races all share Rocky Mountain character of steep terrain, unpredictable weather, high altitude and beautiful scenery. He says there's a "ruggedness" of rocky trails.

"It's a lot of steep climbing," says Barney. "And all kinds of weather conditions. Even in summer, you can have snow. I've dealt with all kinds of conditions, from heat to downpours to blizzards."

Barney completed his first Slam in 2009 and his fourth in 2016. In a perfect scenario, he would probably do four of the Rocky 100 races every year. However, he could not get into the Hardrock race this year. But he did run Bighorn and will be doing Wasatch and the Bear.

That's one of the logistical challenges making the Rocky Mountain Slam more difficult. As the number of ultrarunners surges, races become more impacted and many adopt lotteries. Hardrock, Leadville and Wasatch now have lotteries. Bear and Bighorn fill up quickly, so it's important to register early.

Barney acknowledges that doing four 100-milers in a summer is physically challenging, especially in years when the Wasatch and the Bear are within a couple of weeks of one another.

But, like other ultrarunners, he loves the mountains, trail running and being with friends. He enjoys pursuing the Slam and the feeling of accomplishment. He admits getting "a sort of empty feeling" when he can't get into a race like Hardrock. Plus, there's a spiritual pull to running 100 miles through the wilderness.

"At Hardrock, in the middle of the night, I had a chance to just lay down and turn my light off and look at the stars at 13,000 feet," he says. "You don't get to do that very often. Just enjoying being out there and the moment, seeing sunrises and sunsets and sunrises again in the course of one race, it's somethingIt let's me think about my place in the world and the universe and where I fit in."

A British couple are completing every single Olympic event in 17 days for charity

Stuart Bates and Charlotte Nichols of the U.K. have set out to complete every single Olympic event over the 17 days the Games are taking place in Tokyo. They’re taking on this challenge to raise money for the Motor Neuron Disease Association (MNDA), and are calling it the “Spennylympics” in honor of Bates’ brother, Spencer (a.k.a. Spenny), who passed away from motor neuron disease

In order to complete this formidable challenge, Bates and Nichols will have to complete 96 events in 17 days, including the marathon, 10K swim and the 234K cycling road race. They’ll even be putting together a synchronized swimming routine — and we thought Sifan Hassan’s competition schedule was grueling!

Bates and Nichols share on their website that they were both excited and terrified to begin the challenge. “We share a passion for all sports and are by nature hugely competitive people (without the fitness or expertise to back it up!),” they add. “Although we have both previously completed fundraising events they have been nothing quite like the scale or magnitude of the Spennylympics.”

Their motivation, of course, is to raise as much money as possible for the MNDA, and they continue to say that the pain and sacrifice they will experience over these 17 days will pale in comparison to what those living with motor neuron disease experience on a daily basis. Still, the pain they’ve experienced during some of the events, notably the 50Km race walk, has been significant.

With only four days left in these Olympics Games, the pair have less than 10 events to go in order to complete the challenge. While they are close to the end, they’ve saved the marathon for last, which will be a monster hurdle to get over before officially finishing the Spennylympics. To keep up with their efforts, follow them on Twitter (@spennylympics) and Instagram, and if you’d like to support their cause, head over to their website to donate.

Tokyo Olympian runs fast 400m time in a baggy, oversized T-shirt

As the Olympics have transitioned into track and field from road cycling and swimming, there is a debate on Twitter on why all track athletes do not wear aerodynamic suits, as cyclists and swimmers do.

Bahamian 400m sprinter Steven Gardiner won the 400m semifinals in a speedy time of 44.14, which put him into Thursday’s final. 44 seconds for 400m is spectacular, but fans on Twitter were more impressed he ran that time while wearing an oversized Bahamas training T-shirt. Our sources did not confirm if he actually forgot his race singlet in the Athletes’ Village, or if he just prefers his sleeves flapping in the wind. Gardiner was the inspiration for the Twitter debate about the aerodynamics of sprinters’ racing kit. (Spoiler alert: we published this story the day before the 400m final, which Gardiner would go on to win in 43.85, wearing appropriate racing attire, but still an untucked shirt, not unlike many others.)

Aerodynamics refers to the concept of forces resulting in the motion of objects through air. The study of the motion of air around an object allows us to measure how gravity and resistance work while the object travels through it.

As we’ve seen, aerodynamics are very important to cyclists. Any stray fabric flapping in the breeze is potentially slowing them down. On a flat road, aerodynamics are by far the greatest barrier to a cyclist’s speed, accounting for 70 to 90 per cent of the resistance riders experience when pedalling. The only greater obstacle is climbing up a hill, as gravity far outweighs the effect of wind resistance. Over the past five years, there has been a major development in more stretchy, lighter and breathable fabrics for cyclists to slice through the air while competing at high speeds.

Technology is constantly evolving to benefit the athlete and allows them to operate at a high level of performance. At these Olympic Games, male and female athletes are given a choice on what they can wear during competition. In certain events such as the 10,000m, where you have to run 25 laps around the track, a majority of distance athletes will wear the classic singlet and shorts, due to their loose-fitting and comfortable feel for 30 minutes of high-intensity running. During a 10,000m race, speed does help, but cutting the air is less important, as most runners will reach a top speed of 25 km/h and will remain tucked into a pack for most of the race.

When Eliud Kipchoge broke the 2-hour marathon barrier at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Austria, scientists at Eindhoven University in the Netherlands analyzed wind formations when running at 21.2 km/h. They ended up proposing a special arrangement of runners who would pace around Kipchoge in order to lower his output of power against resistance, which ultimately allowed him to perform at a higher level. This formation is very similar to those in a bike peloton at the Tour de France. The athlete who takes the wind has to work harder than the athlete tucked in behind him.

Unfortunately, sprinting events do not have the luxury of pack-aided performance. When Usain Bolt set the 100m and 200m world records, he achieved his top speed of 45 km/h in a singlet and half tights. According to scientists, when a human reaches a speed faster than 40 km/h, 80 per cent of the human’s power output goes into overcoming air resistance and gravity. During his six gold medal performances in the 100m and 200m, Bolt never used the aerodynamic speed suit. Who knows what he could’ve run wearing 400mH champion Karsten Warholm’s Puma speed suit?

A few of the world’s top track athletes are beginning to transition to the speed suit to gain any aerodynamic benefits they can. Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Mohammed Katir of Spain, two of the fastest men on earth over the 1,500m and 5,000m distances this year, were both wearing one-piece speed suits during their Olympic heats. Newly crowned 800m gold medallist Athing Mu has been racing in wind-cutting suits since turning pro earlier this year. Clearly, science has proven wind-cutting technology can make a difference, but World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, gives each athlete a strict guideline on what can be worn during competition at the Olympic Games and World Championships:

According the World Athletes under rule 143 section 5 of World Athletics – competition and technical rules:

In short, this means that all athletes competing have to abide by the competition rules of their countries’ athletic governing body, which must abide by the rules and regulations set by World Athletics.

At these Games, men and women are given the choice of three options for competition; a singlet and short shorts, one-piece aero-speed suit, or (a combination of speed and comfort) a singlet and half tights – the best of both worlds. Women are offered one more option, with the crop top and short shorts.

As technology advances, the world’s best athletes continue to chase world records. The athletes will always lean towards wearing the lightest or fastest gear to give their performance a slight edge over competition. Who knows? Maybe the Sydney Olympics gold medallist, Cathy Freeman, was ahead of her time when she won the 400m in a head-to-toe speed suit.

Jamaican women win gold in womens 4x100m final

The Jamaican women brought out the big guns for the final of the 4x100m relay, and it paid off. Briana Williams ran the lead leg, handing off to Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, then Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson (who also ran in the heats) for the win in a national record of 41.02. They edged out the USA, who took silver in a season’s best 41.45, anchored by Gabby Thomas (with a lot of ground being made up in the third leg by Jenna Prandini).

Great Britain came through for bronze in 41.88. It was the third time in four Olympics that these three nations have stood on the podium in this event, in various configurations of gold, silver and bronze.

There were a few moments of doubt over whether the Jamaicans might have been out of position in the first hand-off, but ultimately the result stood, and the team started celebrating. Switzerland ran well, with 100m finalists Ajla del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji racing hard to put their team on the podium, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. Team Netherlands fumbled the handoff from lead Nadine Visser to Dafne Schippers, and their race was done.

Miller-Uibo gets gold in 400m final

The women’s 400m final netted another gold for defending gold medallist Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who also won five years ago in Rio, in a personal best and area record of 48.36, after some doubt about whether the schedule would allow her to double. (Miller-Uibo also ran the 200m, but didn’t make the final.) Marileidy Paulino took silver in a national-record-setting performance for the Dominican Republic of 49.20. Allyson Felix, who won silver in this event in Rio, earned the bronze in 49.46, her fastest time yet this year and an unbelievable 10th Olympic medal for the American.

Team USA redeems itself in the men’s 4x400m relay heats

The first heat of the men’s 4x400m was fast and furious, with Team USA running well after its disastrous 4x100m performance. Anchor Michael Norman crossed the line first, in 2:57.77, followed by Botswana (who ran their fastest man, Isaac Makwala, as their lead leg, a strategy that paid off for them) and Trinidad and Tobago as the last auto-qualifier from this heat. Italy and the Netherlands, in fourth and fifth, had to wait and see if they would advance, but both qualified through to the final in the end. All five saw times under three minutes, and this heat produced three national or area records – for Botswana, the Netherlands and Italy.

The second heat was almost as fast, producing two national records (but in the fourth and fifth finishers, India and Japan, who did not advance). Poland and Belgium dominated, with the Poles crossing the line first in 2:58.55. Jamaica finished third, all of them running under three minutes. Going through to Friday evening’s final are USA, Botswana, Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Belgium and Jamaica.

Brigid Kosgei seeks Kenyan Olympic marathon redemption

World record holder Brigid Kosgei has the unenviable task at the Tokyo Olympics of restoring Kenya's image in the marathon, which suffered a huge dent after the 2016 Rio Games.

Compatriot Jemima Sumgong became the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympic marathon gold in Brazil, but she subsequently tested positive for the endurance booster EPO and was banned for eight years.

Kosgei, who ran the fastest women's marathon of all time, clocking 2hr 14min 04sec in Chicago in October 2019, is eyeing a medal on Saturday in Sapporo to spare Kenyan blushes.

Organizers moved the marathons from the capital to avoid Tokyo's punishing summer heat but temperatures in Sapporo are currently in the 30s, which will make the race a tough challenge for the entire field.

"I know it wouldn't be easy winning the gold medal... but I will go out there and take my chances since this is my first Olympics," Kosgei told AFP.

Like so many athletes, Kosgei traveled to the Olympics after 18 disrupted months due to the coronavirus crisis.

"It is unfortunate that we didn't have many competitions to help us prepare us for the Games since the Covid pandemic led to many race cancellations," she said.

A late starter in the sport, Kosgei -- a mother of eight-year-old twins -- had a difficult time growing up in a large family of seven children to a single peasant mother in Elgeyo Marakwet in Kenya's Rift Valley.

Like many of the girls in her village, Kosgei saw athletics as a vehicle to help her escape a life of destitution.

Her first marathon was in Porto, Portugal, in 2015 when the 27-year-old made a dream debut, winning the event in 2:47.59.

- 'Sharing the limelight' -

Kosgei credits her coach Erick Kimaiyo, a former winner of the Honolulu marathon and a runner-up in the 1997 Berlin marathon, for believing in her and helping to nurture her raw talent at his Kapsait training camp situated outside Nairobi at over 9,600 feet (2,900 meters) above sea level.

"I had grown up listening about the great marathon achievements of Catherine Ndereba and Tegla Loroupe, but I didn't expect that I could one day be sharing the same limelight with them," Kosgei said.

"But it was Kimaiyo’s belief in me that helped to propel me and see myself succeeding as a champion marathon runner."

The mentorship resulted in two contrasting victories at the 2016 and 2017 Honolulu marathons, with the difference in winning times between the two events -- 2:31:10 and then 2:22:15 -- further illustrating the power of the forged partnership.

She has won the London marathon twice and set a half-marathon course record of 64min 28sec at the Great North Run in northeast England in September 2019.

However, having missed the 2019 Doha world championships, Kosgei is hoping the Covid-affected Olympics will provide the big stage for her -- and redemption for Kenya.

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon outkicks Hassan for Olympic 1,500m gold, sets Olympic record

On another hot, humid night in Tokyo, the match-up we’ve all been waiting for finally took place: defending Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and the 5,000m gold medalist and world champion Sifan Hassan, who was attempting the 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m triple crown, went head-to-head over the metric mile, but it was the U.K.’s Laura Muir who got between them, setting a national record of 3:54.50, while Kipyegon took home the gold in a new Olympic record of 3:53.11. Hassan had to settle for bronze, in 3:55.86.

Canadian track fans had their eyes on Toronto’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, who was competing in her first-ever Olympic final. She did not make it out of the heats five years ago in Rio, but this time around was a potential challenger for a medal. She ran a brave race, going out strong to lead the pack through the first 300m. Hassan took over, to bring the pack through the first lap in 62 seconds, while Stafford stuck with the lead group to stay in medal contention.

She looked strong coming into the bell lap, but in the last 300m Kipyegon kicked up the pace and DeBues-Stafford began losing touch with the top three runners, ending up in fifth in 3:58.93 behind Ethiopia’s Freweyni Gebreezibeher, a 20-place improvement from her Olympic debut.

While everyone was expecting the fight for gold to be between Kipyegon and Hassan, it was Muir who was the (delightful) surprise of the night. The U.K. runner ran the race of her life, passing Hassan in the final 200m to take the silver medal in a new personal best and national record.

Hassan’s third-place finish means she will not accomplish the unprecedented 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m triple crown, but she still has a chance of winning three medals of different colours, with the 10,000m final taking place on Saturday.

World record holder Joshua Cheptegei wins 5000m gold for Uganda

Joshua Cheptegei added the Olympic 5000m title to his world record in a race which was just short of achieving a Games best time.

The Ugandan was forced to settle for silver in the 10,000m, but made amends by winning the shorter distance in 12:58.15, less than half a second slower than the Olympic record set by Kenenisa Bekele in 2008.

Cheptegei finished ahead of Canada's Mohammad Ahmed and American Paul Chelimo to succeed Mo Farah as champion.

Britain's Andy Butchart fell off the leading pack with around 1000m to go, finishing 11th.

Cheptegei, who revealed he had been struggling with a heel injury heading into the Games, made sure he was near the front of the field right from the start.

But he will be thankful to his team-mate Jacob Kiplimo, who did much of the heavy lifting early on, setting a pace which always looked like it would dip below 13 minutes.

It was easily the quickest 5000m Olympic final since Bekele’s victory in Beijing 13 years ago, and Cheptegei looked to ease to victory when he took full control on the final lap. Ahmed finished well, but never appeared likely to overhaul his rival.

The victory makes the Ugandan, whose world record stands at 12:35.36, an Olympic and world champion, adding to his 10,000m win at Doha 2019

Dina Asher-Smith back to help 4x100m relay team set new British record at Tokyo Olympics

After tears and torment, Dina Asher-Smith could yet leave Tokyo with a gold medal after Britain’s 4x100m relay women ran the fastest heat at an Olympics, setting a national record in the process.

With Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot and Daryll Neita also producing strong performances the British team crossed the line in 41.55sec – faster than the gold-medal-winning times at all but two editions of the Olympic Games. Asher-Smith, whose Olympic ambitions for the 100m and 200m were knocked off course by a hamstring tear in June, believes more is to come from her and the team.

“After the 100m I did say there was no way I wasn’t going to be here for the 4x100m girls,” she said. “I only had one day off then my coach, John Blackie, had me back on the training track. Essentially, all I need is a few more weeks and sessions.

“He was saying if I had a few more days it would have been the 100m final, another week and it would have been 10.8. It’s one of those things where I’m chasing times. Give me a few more training sessions and I’ll be closer to where I’m used to being. There was no way I wasn’t going to be here.“But it is about me getting back on the training track and making sure I bring my absolute A game to this race.

“It would mean incredible things to everybody. We are the bronze medalists in Rio. It would be amazing for us to get another medal again, for all of us, for all of our lives, for all of our individual dreams and aspirations.”

Britain’s men also offered a glimmer of hope in what has been a disappointing Olympics in track and field by qualifying in second in their heat behind Jamaica in 38.02. With the US and South Africa bombing out, the men’s team of CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty, and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake have set their sights high.

“We want nothing but gold,” said Kilty. “There is more in the tank. Easy, easy, no problem at all. We knew we were going to play it safe there.”

The US Olympic great Carl Lewis said the American team had done everything wrong as they came sixth in their heat in 38.10s.

“The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs and it was clear that there was no leadership,” said Lewis, who is now a coach at the University of Houston. “It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the Association of American University kids I saw.”

2022 Austin Marathon Will Offer Free, Personalized Finisher Video For All Participants

The 30th annual Ascension Seton Austin Marathon presented by Under Armour will provide a free, personalized finish line video for all participants who cross the finish line on February 20, 2022. This video, valued at $19, is just the beginning of numerous amazing perks being put together to commemorate the anniversary. The commemorative video will be produced by FinisherPix. It’ll include finishers crossing the finish line and commemorative 30th-anniversary designs and footage.

“Runners are ready to create new memories on the streets of Austin and this free video will be a keepsake they’ll be proud to share,” said Stacy Keese, co-owner of High Five Events. “We’re excitedly preparing to celebrate our 30th year of running Austin and building this event into one of the top experiences in the world!”

The marathon distance will return for the 2022 Austin Marathon, owned and produced by High Five Events. It was not part of the rescheduled 2021 event based on the COVID-19 Mitigation Plan that allowed running to return to Austin earlier this year. Plans are also underway to bring back many elements that make the Austin Marathon one of the top event experiences in the world. This includes the full expo, expanded beer garden, live music at the finish line, and 3-block-long finish line festival.

“Austin Marathon is a beloved and well-known event that regularly provides a memorable experience for runners from all over the world,” said Robbie Little, Vice President, Event Services at Outside. “We’re excited to produce this video that we know will be seen by friends and family around the world.”

Austin’s flagship running event annually attracts runners from all 50 states and 35+ countries around the world. The start and finish locations are just a few blocks apart. They are within walking distance of many downtown hotels and restaurants. The finish line is in front of the picturesque Texas State Capitol.

The Austin Marathon is the perfect running weekend destination. Pricing is currently $129 for the marathon, $109 for the half marathon, and $59 for the KXAN Simple Health 5K. Additional FinisherPix photo packages can be purchased at a discounted rate during the registration process. 

Steven Gardiner won Olympic 400m gold to secure the Bahamas' first medal of the Tokyo 2020 Games

Gardiner, the current world champion over the distance, crossed the line in 43.85 seconds.

Colombia's Anthony Zambrano took silver, while 2012 champion Kirani James of Grenada won bronze, completing his full set of Olympic 400m medals, having finished second in Rio.

World record holder Wayde van Niekerk's reign as defending champion was over when the South African, who has struggled with injury over the past five years, finished fifth in the semi-finals on Monday.

In his absence, Gardiner produced a superbly balanced race, holding back as James and American Michael Norman went out hardest and then reaping the rewards as he stretched clear in the home straight.

"When the gun went off I stumbled a bit coming out but I recovered, I kept it moving, and with 200 meters to go I started to push a little bit. And 100 meters to go, I gave it all I've got," Gardiner said.

"I came across the line and saw my name on the big screen and I was in first place. I'm just happy."

Canada's Andre de Grasse wins 200-meter gold

Andre de Grasse of Canada has won the Olympic gold medal in the men's 200 meters five years after finishing second to Usain Bolt, ending a string of close calls for the 26-year-old.

De Grasse won in a national-record time of 19.62 seconds, holding off two Americans for the medals.

Kenneth Bednarek won silver in a personal-best 19.68 seconds, and 2019 world champion and race favorite Noah Lyles took bronze in 19.74. Erriyon Knighton, the youngest member of the U.S. men's track team at 17, placed fourth in 19.93.

De Grasse has now filled out a medal collection that was missing only a gold. He won bronze four nights earlier in the 100 meters to go with the third-place medal he took in Rio de Janeiro. He also won a silver in the 200 in Rio, when he famously challenged Bolt in the semifinal -- drawing a playful finger wag -- before being blown away by the Jamaican champion in the final.

Given all he has been through, it was no surprise when De Grasse revealed that he had been crying behind the bronze-colored shades he wore for the race.

"It's my first time being so emotional on the track," said De Grasse, the first sprint gold medalist for Canada since Donovan Bailey won the 100 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. "I always thought I came up short winning bronze and silver, so it's just good to have that gold medal. No one can take that away from me."

Lyles made a mistake the night before in the semifinals, slowing down too far before the line, getting edged out for the two automatic spots and being forced to wait to see if his time would earn him a qualifying spot.

It cost him in the final. Forced to start in Lane 3, Lyles pushed out too quickly. He had the lead heading into the homestretch but had nothing more to give.

American and World Record Holder Keira D’Amato Confirmed For 2021 Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile

World Record holder Keira D’Amato will be wearing a third hat throughout the upcoming Credit Union Cherry Blossom race weekend — that of race committee member. But her clear focus will be on improving upon the record setting 10-mile time of 51:23 that she ran at the Up Dawg Ten Miler in Washington DC’s Anacostia Park in a women’s only invitational race. The event was organized by the Credit Union Cherry Blossom race committee members last November at a time when mass participation road races had ceased and had been replaced by a tiny number of elite only “micro-events.” Keira’s time was ratified as the American record by USATF last December and as the World Record by the Association of Road Racing Statisticians in July. 

On September 12th, D’Amato will be joined on the starting line by many of the best American female distance runners as they race for the 2021 USATF 10 Mile Championships Presented by Toyota. The women will start at 7:18 a.m., while the elite men’s field will be sent off at 7:30 a.m. The early start for women removes any questions of pacing or other assistance by men and qualifies the winner for a single-sex women’s only record. When the U.S. men take off 12 minutes later, they, too, will be in pursuit of the 2021 USATF 10 Mile Championships as well as the men’s American 10 mile record of 45:54 set by Galen Rupp last fall. Rupp’s time bettered the American Record of 46:13 set by Greg Meyer at the 1983 Cherry Blossom. (Updated entries to both the men’s and women’s fields will be provided in mid-August and in the week leading up to the race.)

The prize pool for the 2021 USATF 10 Mile Championships totals $26,000 for men and women. An additional $10,000 bonus will be awarded if a man or woman breaks the American Records of sub-45:54 and sub-51:23 respectively (the bonus will be split if both the first American man and first American woman break the record). International elite runners will be part of the field competing for an additional $20,000 in prize money, and American runners can double-dip on American and International prize money if they finish in the top-10 overall. Should a World Record be set, there will be an additional $10,000 bonus paid (split if both the winning male and female break the record).

In other news, race organizers have confirmed that Metro will be providing the event with a special dispensation by opening at 5:00 a.m. on race day, three hours earlier than the usual Sunday morning opening time. This will make taking Metro to the event possible (riders will be required to pay the usual travel costs).

“Metro has truly provided a gift to all our runners and volunteers by initiating Sunday operations at 5 a.m., making it the best way to travel to and from the staging area on the Washington Monument Grounds,” said event director Phil Stewart. “We greatly appreciate Metro’s support to the DC-area community as everyone emerges from the pandemic. Metro has truly opened doors and made our lives better.”

Finally, registration for the 2021 Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile and 5K Run-Walk will close on August 15th.

The 2021 Credit Union Cherry Blossom Runs mark the 20th year of title sponsorship by Credit Union Miracle Day. Since 2002, over $10 million has been raised for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, including $439,000 in 2020. Of that $439,000, $66,000 came from runners donating their entry fees instead of asking for a refund when race weekend in our Nation’s Capital was wiped out by Covid-19. 

About the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile:

The Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile, organized by Cherry Blossom, Inc., a 501c(3) chapter of the Road Runners Club of America, is known as “The Runner’s Rite of Spring®” in the Nation’s Capital. The staging area for the event is on the Washington Monument Grounds, and the course passes in sight of all of the major Washington, DC Memorials. The event serves as a fundraiser for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a consortium of 170 premier children’s hospitals across North America. About one-third of the funds raised support Washington, DC’s own Children’s National (“Children’s Hospital”). The event also funds the Road Runners Club of America’s “Roads Scholar” program, designed to support up-and-coming U.S. distance running talent.

Credit Union Miracle Day, Inc., a consortium of credit unions and credit union suppliers in partnership with CUNA Mutual Group, PCSU and CO-OP Financial Services, is the title sponsor of the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, 5K Run-Walk and Kids’ Run. Additional sponsorship comes from ASICS, Garmin Gatorade, Medstar Health and Potomac River Running.

The event is a proud member of the PRRO Circuit (PRRO.org), a series of major non-marathon prize money road races in Tampa, FL; Washington, DC; Spokane, WA; and Utica, NY. The circuit is committed to a drug-free sport and funds drug testing at all circuit events in compliance with the standards of international and U.S. drug testing authorities.

In addition to being sanctioned by USA Track & Field and the Road Runners Club of America, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom Run has earned Gold Level Inspire Certification from the Council for Responsible Sport in recognition of its legacy of commitment to sustainability and thoughtful resource management. To learn more, visit www.cherryblossom.org and follow the event on social media @CUCB and #CUCB2021.

Molly Seidel will Run the Falmouth Road Race for Charity Tommy's Place

Organizers of the 49th annual ASICS Falmouth Road Race, one of America’s premier running events of the summer season, today announced that on the heels of her competition in Tokyo, U.S. Olympic marathon runner, Molly Seidel, will travel to Cape Cod to participate in this year’s race.

As part of her participation, Seidel will be the official race starter and then join the field as the very last runner. For every runner that she passes along the 7-mile course, Falmouth Road Race, Inc. will donate $1 to Tommy’s Place, a vacation home in Falmouth for kids fighting cancer.

The 2021 Olympic marathoner will run the ASICS Falmouth Road Race alongside her sister, Isabel, as a post-Olympic celebration.  

“We are very excited to have Molly Seidel join us in person for the 49th running of the ASICS Falmouth Road Race,” said Scott Ghelfi, president of the Falmouth Road Race, Inc. Board of Directors. “Over the years, we have been very fortunate to welcome so many accomplished runners to our race. We are honored that Molly has chosen to join us as part of her post-Olympic plans, while agreeing to start the race last to raise money for Tommy’s Place, named after our race founder, Tommy Leonard, to honor his legacy. It really doesn’t get much better than that. We wish her the best of luck in Tokyo and look forward to cheering her on during the women’s marathon on August 6 and to personally welcoming her to Falmouth for what we believe will be another incredible road race.”

Seidel’s running career accomplishments include: 

2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials Marathon, 2nd  

2019  Cape Cod Marathon “Half,” 1st

2018 USATF Cross Country Championships, 2nd

2018 USATF Road Running Championships 15K, 3rd 

2017 USATF Road Running Championships 5K, 2nd 

2016 NCAA Indoor Championships, 3000m, 1st 

2016 NCAA Indoor Championships 5000m, 1st 

2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships 10,000m, 1st 

The in-person running of the 49th annual ASICS Falmouth Road Race will take place on Sunday, August 15, 2021. In addition to this year’s in-person event, the 49th ASICS Falmouth Road Race will feature a virtual SBLI Kids At-Home Challenge and the race’s At-Home Edition, where participants will lace up their running shoes and go 7 miles in their own neighborhoods between August 7 – 14.

For nearly 50 years, Falmouth Road Race, Inc. has promoted health, wellness and pride in the community. In these unprecedented and uncertain times, the organization is striving to be consistent in its mission, continuing to provide its dedicated athletes, enthusiasts, and the community with an event to be proud of and one that supports people in need.

For more information on the ASICS Falmouth Road Race, please visit www.falmouthroadrace.com

USA's Sydney McLaughlin breaks world record at Tokyo

Sydney McLaughlin broke her world record Wednesday and won the Olympic 400-meter hurdles gold, finishing in 51.46 seconds in yet another close victory over U.S. teammate Dalilah Muhammad.

McLaughlin came from behind after the last hurdle to top the defending Olympic champion. Muhammad's time of of 51.58 also beat McLaughlin's old record of 51.9, set at Olympic trials last month.

Femke Bol of the Netherlands finished third.

For McLaughlin, it was a muted celebration. She sat on the ground, gave a serious look toward the scoreboard, got up and sanitized her hands, then accepted a congratulatory hug from Muhammad.

Amazing as it was, this world record didn't really surprise anyone.

McLaughlin and Muhammad have been trading the record, and the wins, for two years. Muhammad first broke the mark at U.S. Nationals in 2019, then lowered it again. to 52.16, at the world championships in Doha.

McLaughlin broke that record earlier this summer at Olympic trials, running her 51.90 to become the first woman to crack 52 seconds.

It felt inevitable that the mark would go down again on a fast track in perfect, hot-and-humid running conditions in Tokyo.

The day before, Karsten Warholm crushed his old world record, finishing the men’s race in 45.94, and runner-up Rai Benjamin’s 46.17 also beat the old mark.

It was a lot to live up to for the women, whose race was even more eagerly anticipated. They lived up to the hype.

Peruth Chemutai became the first Ugandan woman to win an Olympic gold medal in any sport when she triumphed in the women's 3,000m steeplechase on Wednesday

The 22-year-old clocked a time of 9:01.45 to finish over three seconds ahead of American silver medalist Courtney Frerichs with Kenya's Hyvin Kiyeng taking the bronze.

"I'm so happy and proud of myself. It was a good race - I enjoyed myself and I enjoyed the weather," Chemutai said, referring to the heat in Tokyo.

Chemutai's triumph was only the third Olympic gold won by Uganda in any sport -- after John Akii-Bua's 400m hurdles win in 1972 and Stephen Kiprotich's victory in the 2012 marathon.

She moved in front early in the race before Frerichs took the initiative with three laps to go, pulling away from the field.

But Chemutai responded to the challenge and overtook the American on the last lap before crossing the line 3.34 seconds ahead of her.

Frerichs became the second American woman to win an Olympic steeplechase medal after Emma Coburn, who claimed bronze in Rio in 2016.

Coburn fell with two laps left and finished 14th before being disqualified but her team mate Frerichs was delighted with her silver after nearly missing the Games due to illness.

"I was prepared to have to take it early and make it a hard race. It's really difficult to put yourself out there like that and I definitely had some fear to overcome but I knew I'd walk away with no regrets if I really laid it all out there," she said.

Kenyan world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech finished seventh, leaving her country still without a gold medal in the women's event.

Kenyans have dominated the Olympic men's 3,000m steeplechase, winning nine gold medals in a row before losing their crown to Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali in Tokyo.

Chepkoech said she was far from at her best physically.

"I have an injury and it was so tight. I didn't even react, it's painful," she said.

"My aim was to win the race, but because of the injury, my mind was not here. It was so painful.

"I have problems with two tendons and a hamstring, low back and the stomach. I got injured before our trials in Kenya and it has been so tight since, I tried to nurse it, but it couldn't respond," she added.

Bronze medalist Kiyeng had won silver in Rio.

17-years old, Erriyon Knighton just became the youngest ever man to qualify for the 200m final at the Olympics

What’s more, the American stormed his heat, cruising to victory and inspiring hopes of a medal on Wednesday.

Having registered 19.84 in June, the teenager is officially the fourth-fastest man in the field, making a place on the podium a genuine possibility.

Bolt’s legendary world record time of 19.19 is probably safe at these Games – but for how much longer?

The Jamaican, who won an astonishing eight gold medals over three Olympics, has already seen one of his many records broken by Knighton.

Earlier this year, the American ran 19.88 in the Olympic trials, setting a new junior world record for an Under-18 – which he has since broken himself.

The previous mark had stood for 17 years, set by a 17-year-old Bolt in 2004, which means we can loosely say that Knighton is faster than the Jamaican was at this age.

Moreover, Knighton was barely trying as he crossed the line at the trials, begging the question of what the American might be capable of if he sprints through the finish.

And if it’s not this year, many expect the youngster to step into the big shoes of Bolt one day in the future.

Knighton certainly has the personality to match the larger-than-life character that went alongside the Jamaican’s incredible achievements on the track.

Don’t forget, Bolt was 21 when he arrived at Beijing 2008 – and Knighton is already ahead of that iconic curve.

The wild and crazy men’s1500m at Tokyo Olympics

In heat one Belgium’s Ismael Debjani won to be fastest overall in 3:36.00 with a 53.4 last lap, just ahead of world champion Timothy Cheruiyot (3:36.01), Oliver Hoare (3:36.09), US trials winner Cole Hocker (3:36.16), Abdelatif Sadiki (3:36.23) and Michal Rozmys (3:36.28) who qualified automatically.

Rozmys had been six tenths of a second behind Kerr as he hit the straight but ran a 12.9 last 100m to the Scot’s 13.5 to catch him on the line, meaning the British champion missed out on automatic qualification by one hundredth of a second as he struggled in the closing stages.

Kerr said: “I was really frustrated with my positioning and there was some shoving and I made a hard move at 500m to go. Then, at 200m to go, I felt I was going to pay for this in the home stretch. I was just trying to stay focused and push all the way, but it just wasn’t a good run for me. I am fit and ready and I have had no problems. There are just no excuses for that. I just raced it badly.”

Kerr must have been relieved as heat two was run at nowhere near the same pace. The field ambled through 400m in 62.4 and 800m in 2:02.9, only really coming to life on the last lap as Kenyan Abel Kipsang covered it in 52.8 to win in 3:40.68.

Second was defending champion Matt Centrowitz (3:41.12), just ahead of Wightman (3:41.18) who ran his last 400m in 53.2 and 200m in 26.3. Also qualifying easily were Azeddine Habz (3:41.24), Samuel Zeleke (3:41.63) and Charles Grethen (3:41.92).

Marcin Lewandowski fell on the last lap and he jogged home but was added to the qualifiers by the judges after the event.

Wightman said: “It’s the most nerve-racking round, isn’t it? You’re worried you’re going to be embarrassed. I’m glad I managed to stay on my feet and get through. I had a smooth enough ride. I think I got a spike wound, had a few pushes but there was the fall which I’m glad I didn’t even notice until the end.

“The heats are the worst, because you’ve come all this way and no-one wants to get knocked out in the heat or expects to get knocked out in the heat, so you just want to get past and know how you are running to get through to the semi-final.”

The third heat was faster but, with six fastest loser spots, it did mean there would have to be 12 quicker than 3:36.29 for Kerr to exit and, in the end, there were only two.

The first lap was a slow 61.7 before Stewart McSweyn kicked on. The Australian completed the second lap in a lively 56.9 and the third in a top class 55.1, with only Heyward still in contact as the pair went through 1200m in 2:53.7 and 2:53.9, holding a big gap over the pack led by Robert Farken in 2:55.1.

Heyward passed McSweyn in the straight and won clearly in 3:36.14, having eased around his last lap in 55.9 and covered his last 1200m inside 2:50. Ethiopia’s Tedesse Lemi, who had been 12th at the bell, ran a 53.9 last lap to finish second in 3:36.26 and he had covered his last 1200m in 2:48.9.

McSweyn (3:36.39), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (an anonymous 3:36.49), Farken (3:36.71) and Adel Mechaal (3:36.74) completed the automatic qualifiers.

Double Olympic medallist Nick Willis (3:36.88), Andrew Coscoran (3:37.11), Ayanleh Souleiman (3:37.25) and Kenyan trials winner Charles Simotwo (3:37.26) qualified by time as they joined Kerr and Ignacio Fontes (3:36.95) as fastest losers.

Soufiane El Bakkali, who won the 3000m steeplechase title the previous day, was in contention until 200m to go but pulled out.

Heyward said: “I don’t think it could have gone much better. Safely through, that’s the main thing. You have to have a few scenarios, you have to be versatile. It could be fast, could be slow, so you’ve got to be ready for that. I think I always give my best performances in championships and I hope that showed a glimpse of what I can do.

“You can’t take anything for granted at the Olympics, you’ve got to be prepared for anything, and I was prepared to run super hard today, so that was my mindset going in. Luckily because I didn’t have to run that hard it felt quite comfortable, so it was good.”